ON THE COVER
Dr Sarah Jarvis Avoiding flu
For the last couple of weeks, GP practices across the country have been trying to protect as many patients as possible from flu. It’s estimated that anything from 600-13,000 people die in the UK from flu every winter. The flu vaccine is your best pprotection – as well as reducing the risk of catching flu, it cuts the chance of complications if you get it. But how can you avoid catching it in the first place?
Flu is caused by a virus and that means antibiotics are completely useless. Anti-virus tablets do exist, but they’re not a cure – they may speed reecovery by a couple of days. Soo apart from the flu vaccine, thhe best way of avoiding flu iss to avoid the virus in the first place.
The virus is spread in one oof two ways: droplets you bbreathe in, and direct ccontact – picking the germ uup on your hands and ggetting it into your system when you touch your nose, mouth or eyes. So to minimise the chance of spread:
◆ Wash your hands regularly with soap and water, especially when in a public place where germs from others might have landed.
◆ Avoid close contact with others as much as possible if they’re poorly. In particular, stay out of reach of people sneezing, which blasts viruses at huge force round the room. ◆ Try to avoid touching your nose, hands and mouth wherever possible.
◆ Encourage everyone to “catch it, bin it, kill it” – cover mouth and nose with a paper tissue, bin it immediately and then wash your hands. Antibacterial rub isn’t as good but is a lot better than nothing. ◆ Eat a healthy diet – lots of fruit and veg and not too much processed food is linked to a better immune system, meaning you’re more likely to be able to fight the virus off.
◆ Regular exercise isn’t just good for your heart – there’s evidence it strengthens your immune system too.
As for the vaccine, I’ve heard all the usual myths…
“I don’t need the flu jab – I had it last year.” The flu virus is sneaky and mutates every year. Think of human evolution, which happens over thousands of generations. The flu virus can replicate every few hours, so a year is up to a thousand generations to them. This year’s strains are different to last year’s, so last year’s vaccine won’t protect you.
“The flu jab gave me flu last time.” Physically impossible
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GET INTO THE HABIT OF WIPING KEYBOARDS, PHONES AND DOORKNOBS TO ’’ AVOID SPREADING THE FLU VIRUS.
as the vaccine does not contain any live virus, so it can’t multiply inside your body. It isn’t Lazarus!
“I had flu last year and it was fine just a nasty cough for a few days.” There really is no such thing as “a touch of flu”, as my patients try to tell me. There are hundreds of cold viruses, causing variations on the theme of runny nose, cough, sore throat. But flu is different, with profound exhaustion, aches in muscles you never knew you had, high fever, body racked by bouts of harsh coughing. And that’s before you get any of the complications. If you think you had “a mild case of flu”, you just had a cold.
“I’m healthy so I don’t need it.” Not necessarily. As you get older, your immune system becomes less efficient even if you feel well. The same
applies if you have long term health conditions like diabetes, lung/liver/kidney problems, Parkinson’s disease, pregnancy, etc. This makes it easier for the virus to invade deep into your body, causing pneumonia and other potentially fatal complications.
“What’s the point? I’ve heard it doesn’t work.” It’s true that 2 years ago, the flu vaccine was less effective than usual for over 65s in particular. But since then, over 65s have been offered a new version of the vaccine, specially designed to work more effectively to prime your immune system. And the main flu strains seen in Australia earlier this year – which offer a good indication of what’s to come in the UK – are all covered with our vaccine. NEXT WEEK: Detox your kidneys