Flu shot: Your very best bet for averting influenza

Finding a flu shot frequently guards you from coming down with the flu. And even though the flu shot will not normally offer complete safety, it can be value receiving.

By Mayo Clinic Workers

This year’s yearly flu shot will offer you safety towards three or four of the influenza viruses anticipated to be in circulation this flu time. A high-dose flu vaccine as very well as an additional vaccine also will be out there for grown ups age sixty five and more mature.

Influenza is a respiratory infection that can lead to major difficulties, specially in young little ones, more mature grown ups and individuals with specific health care disorders. Finding an influenza vaccine — while not 100% helpful — is the very best way to reduce the distress of the flu and its difficulties. The Centers for Disorder Handle and Prevention (CDC) suggests yearly flu vaccination for every person age six months or more mature.

Listed here are the responses to widespread inquiries about flu photographs:

When is the flu vaccine out there?

Personal companies make the flu vaccine and get about 6 months to create it. The availability of the flu vaccine is dependent on when creation is concluded. But normally, shipments start off someday in August in the United States. Medical practitioners and nurses may well start off vaccinating individuals as quickly as the flu vaccine is out there in their locations.

It will take up to two months to create immunity immediately after a flu shot, but you can profit from the vaccine even if you you should not get it till immediately after the flu time commences. It truly is typically very best for individuals in the United States to get their flu vaccine in September and Oct, and goal to get it by the finish of Oct. On the other hand, you can however guard you towards late flu outbreaks if you get the vaccine in February or later on.

Why do I have to have to get vaccinated each individual 12 months?

Mainly because flu viruses evolve so swiftly, previous year’s vaccine may well not guard you from this year’s viruses. New flu vaccines are launched each individual 12 months to maintain up with quickly adapting flu viruses.

When you get vaccinated, your immune method generates antibodies to guard you from the viruses bundled in the vaccine. But antibody ranges may well decline over time — a different motive to get a flu shot each individual 12 months.

Who ought to get the flu vaccine?

The CDC suggests yearly influenza vaccinations for every person age six months or more mature. Vaccination is especially important for individuals at high hazard of influenza difficulties, like:

  • Expecting girls
  • Older grown ups
  • Younger little ones

Little ones between six months and eight many years may well have to have two doses of the flu vaccine, given at the very least four months aside, the initial time they are given a flu vaccine. Soon after that, they can acquire single yearly doses of the flu vaccine. A 2017 study showed that the vaccine substantially reduces a kid’s hazard of dying of the flu. Examine with your kid’s doctor.

Continual health care disorders also can improve your hazard of influenza difficulties. Examples include:

  • Asthma
  • Cancer or most cancers treatment
  • Continual obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • Cystic fibrosis
  • Diabetes
  • HIV/AIDS
  • Kidney or liver disease
  • Obesity

Any individual with a long-term health care problem ought to get the flu vaccine.

Who should not get a flu shot?

Examine with your doctor prior to obtaining a flu vaccine if:

  • You happen to be allergic to eggs. Most kinds of flu vaccines consist of a small sum of egg protein. If you have a mild egg allergy — you only get hives from eating eggs, for example — you can acquire the flu shot devoid of any additional precautions. If you have a critical egg allergy, you may well have to have to be vaccinated in a health care location and be supervised by a doctor who is in a position to realize and take care of critical allergic reactions.

    There are also flu vaccines that you should not consist of egg proteins, and are Food items and Drug Administration (Food and drug administration) accredited for use in individuals age 18 and more mature. Talk to your doctor about your possibilities.

  • You had a critical reaction to a preceding flu vaccine. The flu vaccine isn’t proposed for any person who had a critical reaction to a preceding flu vaccine. Examine with your doctor initial, while. Some reactions may not be related to the vaccine.

What are my flu vaccine supply possibilities?

The flu vaccine will be out there as an injection or as a nasal spray. In new many years, there was problem that the nasal spray flu vaccine wasn’t helpful enough towards specific kinds of flu. The nasal spray vaccine is anticipated to be much more helpful in the 2020-2021 time.

The nasal spray vaccine is accredited for individuals between 2 and 49 many years previous.

The nasal flu vaccine isn’t proposed for some individuals, like:

  • Little ones under 2
  • Grownups 50 and more mature
  • Expecting girls
  • Little ones between 2 and 17 many years previous who are having aspirin or a salicylate-that contains medicine
  • Persons with weakened immune devices
  • Children 2 to four many years previous who have had asthma or wheezing in the earlier twelve months

There are other groups encouraged to be cautious about the use of a nasal spray flu vaccine, this sort of as individuals with specific long-term health care disorders. Examine with your doctor to see if you have to have to be cautious about receiving a nasal spray flu vaccine.

The flu vaccine can also be sent by an injection that is typically given in a muscle in the arm. If you are an adult under sixty five, you may well also pick out an in-the-pores and skin (intradermal) vaccine, or you may well like to have your vaccine sent employing a jet injector unit, which uses a high-stress, narrow stream of fluid to penetrate the pores and skin rather of a needle.

Can the vaccine give me the flu or other respiratory illnesses?

No. The flu vaccine cannot give you the flu. It also does not improve your hazard of COVID-19. But you may establish flu-like signs or symptoms — in spite of receiving a flu vaccine — for a wide range of explanations, like:

  • Reaction to the vaccine. Some individuals experience muscle aches and a fever for a working day or two immediately after obtaining a flu vaccine. This may well be a side outcome of your body’s creation of protective antibodies.
  • The two-week window. It will take about two months for the flu shot to get whole outcome. If you are exposed to the influenza virus soon prior to or throughout that time time period, you may capture the flu.
  • Mismatched flu viruses. In some many years, the influenza viruses employed for the vaccine you should not match the viruses circulating throughout the flu time. If this occurs, your flu shot will be less helpful, but may well however offer you some safety.
  • Other diseases. Quite a few other diseases, this sort of as the widespread cold, also create flu-like signs or symptoms. So you may well feel you have the flu when you in fact you should not.

What type of safety does the flu vaccine offer you?

How very well the flu vaccine performs to guard you from the flu can vary. The flu vaccine is normally much more helpful between individuals under sixty five many years previous. Some more mature individuals and individuals with specific health care disorders may well establish less immunity immediately after obtaining a flu shot.

Assessments of earlier research have observed that the flu vaccine is about 50% to sixty% helpful for wholesome grown ups who are between 18 and sixty four many years previous. The vaccine may well from time to time be less helpful.

Even when the vaccine will not completely reduce the flu, it may well lessen the severity of your illness, and lower the hazard of major difficulties and major illness requiring hospitalization.

The flu vaccine does not guard you from receiving COVID-19. On the other hand, it can be especially important to get the flu vaccine this time due to the fact the flu and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lead to similar signs or symptoms. Flu vaccination could lower signs or symptoms that may be perplexed with people caused by COVID-19. Preventing the flu and decreasing the severity of flu illness and hospitalizations could also lessen the number of individuals needing to continue to be in the hospital.

Can I lessen my hazard of the flu devoid of receiving a flu shot?

The flu vaccine is your very best protection towards the flu, but there are additional techniques you can get to support guard you from the flu and other viruses, like COVID-19. These techniques include the next:

  • Clean your arms frequently and carefully with cleaning soap and drinking water for at the very least 20 seconds.
  • Use an liquor-based mostly sanitizer on your arms if cleaning soap and drinking water usually are not out there.
  • Prevent touching your eyes, nose or mouth.
  • Prevent crowds when the flu is spreading in your place.
  • Prevent staying in near get in touch with with other people who are unwell.
  • Include your mouth with a tissue or your elbow when you cough or sneeze, and then clean your arms.
  • Consistently clean up and disinfect commonly touched surfaces, this sort of as counters, light switches or doorknobs. This can support to reduce distribute of infection from touching a floor with the virus on it and then your face.
  • Apply good wellness habits. Get frequent work out, get enough snooze, consume loads of fluids, try to eat a wholesome diet program, and take care of your anxiety.

If you become unwell with the flu, you can also support reduce the distribute of the flu by staying dwelling and absent from other people. Keep on staying dwelling till your fever has been gone for at the very least 24 hours.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, each COVID-19 and the flu may well be spreading at the very same time. Your regional wellness section and the CDC may well suggest additional precautions to lower your hazard of COVID-19 or the flu, this sort of as practicing social distancing and keeping six ft (2 meters) absent from any person outside the house your house. You also may well have to have to dress in a cloth face mask when in general public, especially when it can be tough to keep distance.

Finding your flu vaccine can lower your hazard of the flu and its difficulties, and next these precautions can support guard you from the flu or other respiratory diseases.