Staff Writer
With flu season at our doorsteps Dr Dominique Stott, executive of medical standards and services at PPS, said people in a high-risk health category should especially look to getting vaccinated against the flu virus.
“I always encourage high people in high risk categories like people with with diabetes, patients on chemotherapy as well as HIV/Aids patients to get vaccinated and protect themselves,” she said.
Influenza is one of the viruses that changes all the time and every year these small changes are monitored and by the US Centre for Disease Control. Based on their analyses, a vaccine is created for the flu virus.
But this year Stott said the flu virus’s changes came about later than usual, which meant a vaccine was created later in the year. This slightly delayed South Africa’s access to the vaccine.
But with the vaccine now available in the country Stott said getting vaccinated is the best protection against the virus which can sometimes lead to pneumonia and death, especially for patients in the high risk group.
People over the age of 65 and children between the age of six months and six years also fall under the high risk group when it comes to exposure to the flu virus.
Recently there were reports of 30 children who died in the US after a particularly bad outbreak of flu in the Northern Hemisphere.
Stott said that the children’s reaction to the flu was likely due to the fact that they were between the ages of six months and six years, which was the high-risk group.
“A vaccine against flu actually promotes the immune system, but sometimes if a vaccine is created to protect you against certain flu strains you could still get the virus,” she said.
Stott added the few strains that are not covered by the vaccine are usually of the more uncommon type of strains.
People whose immune systems respond poorly to the vaccine could also get the flu despite being vaccinated. But overall your chances of contracting the flu are still considerably lowered once you get vaccinated.
“People also often confuse the common cold with influenza. With a cold, the symptoms usually include a runny nose and a sore throat, whereas flu comes with fever and body ache which can develop into pneumonia,” said Stott.
“To verify whether you have flu it is always a good idea to first check with your doctor first,” she said.
Stott also explained that the old wives tales of getting enough vitamin C to prevent flu was not true as there was not much you can do to prevent getting the virus on your own.
“To lower your risk you can stay away from busy areas like shopping malls and washing your hands using an antiseptic soap is also a good way to prevent catching respiratory infection.”