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Subscribe to RSSIn 2011 the flu season was mild but U.S. health officials say it's unclear what this year will bring and are urging people to get vaccinated. The flu shot isn't for everyone, but is important for people who are six months and older, pregnant women and those with high-risk conditions. NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports.
Just about everyone is supposed to get a flu shot every year, and two groups are particular no-brainers -- pregnant women and health care workers. But new numbers released on Thursday show that fewer than half of pregnant women got vaccinated last year and just two-thirds of health care workers did.
Although they’ve been pushing flu vaccination hard for more than a decade, public health officials admit they are still finding it a hard sell. But it’s not necessarily resistance. It just may not yet be easy enough to get the vaccine. And recent mild flu seasons haven’t helped.
About 128 million people, or about 42 percent of the U.S. population, got immunized against influenza last year. Because flu viruses constantly mutate and evolve, people must get vaccinated with a fresh formula every year to be fully protected. This year’s vaccine protects against the three most common circulating strains.
The best vaccination rates are among babies aged up to 2, with nearly 75 percent vaccinated. That’s because babies make regular visits to pediatricians, and vaccinations are a routine part of those visits. And more than 63 percent of 2- to 4-year-olds were vaccinated last year. But just 29 percent of 18- to 49-year-olds had a flu shot.
Pregnant women are especially vulnerable to flu. Not only do they get sicker, because pregnancy suppresses the immune system, but the infection can lead to losing their babies. The vaccine also protects a woman’s newborn, who cannot get the vaccine until age six months.
“Influenza is five times more likely to cause severe illness in pregnant women than women who are not pregnant,” said Dr. Laura Riley of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
But a CDC survey released Thursday showed that just 47 percent of pregnant women had a flu vaccine last year. If their doctors both recommended and provided the vaccine, nearly 74 percent of pregnant women got the shot. Just 11 percent of women whose doctor said nothing got immunized.
Even though doctors have been stressing for years that flu vaccines cannot give people the flu, a full quarter of the pregnant women who refused the vaccine said they believed it would infect them. Another 13 percent thought their babies were at risk.
“Pregnant women worry about everything,” Riley said. “We spend a lot of time in this country talking about you can’t eat this, you can’t eat that. It takes us a little while to get the message out about how efficacious (the vaccine) is. We are preventing a very severe disease potentially and we are protecting your baby.” Vaccination does not raise the risk of miscarriages or birth defects.
Don Emmert / AFP - Getty Images file
A mild flu season last year and memories of the H1N1 pandemic that didn't turn out to be as serious as expected have made flu shots a hard sell to the general public.
Flu may be off many people’s radar because the last two years haven’t been especially bad, and because the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic didn’t turn out to be as bad an initially feared.
Yet, 1,300 children died from H1N1 that year and about 100 U.S. children die every year from flu, half of them previously perfectly healthy, CDC says. The CDC estimates that anywhere between 3,000 to 49,000 people a year die from flu in the United States. A lot depends on the strains circulating.
“Flu is unpredictable. Just because we got off easy last season does not mean we will get off easy this season,” Riley said.
The other group that should have 100 percent vaccination is health care workers. The CDC data show that more than 86 percent of physicians are vaccinated, followed by more than three-quarters of nurses. But the numbers plummet to just half of workers in long-term care facilities, where patients are especially vulnerable to flu.
“I believe that the immunization of the health care provider community is both an ethical and professional responsibility,” said Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University in Nashville and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. “It’s a patient safety issue so that we do not transmit our influenza infection. When an outbreak strikes, we need to be vertical, not horizontal.”
As with the pregnant women, health workers were more likely to get vaccinated if it was easy for them. More than 78 percent of health care workers got immunized if free vaccine was made available for several days at work. And 21 percent of the health workers said getting flu vaccine was now a condition of employment. More employers should consider making it a requirement, said Litjen Tan of the American Medical Association.
This year, 135 million doses of flu vaccine will be available to the U.S. market. People can get vaccinated at pharmacies, at big-box stores, grocery stores, doctor’s offices and often at their places of employment. Most private insurance companies and Medicare pay for the whole cost of the vaccine.
And while the vaccines are not specifically formulated to protect against some new flu strains that a few people have caught from pigs, they may offer some help, health officials said.
So far, the three new variants identified this year -- H3n2v (the little v stands for “variant”), H1N1v and H1N2v -- don’t spread easily from person to person. Almost everyone infected has been close to pigs. One person has died from the new H3N2v virus, but everyone else has recovered. The CDC’s Dr. Daniel Jernigan says people alive in the 1990s have some immunity to the H3N2 version, and the new H1N1v is close to the strain that the current vaccine targets, although the protection is not perfect.
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It's a multi-million dollar business. It is not about protecting people. One, they don't know which flu is going to be the one to hit this coming year. It is a guess. There are numerous strains of flu and "the flu shot" does not cover all of them. Two, receiving the shot lowers your immune system and sets you up to get sick from other viruses. I know, you'll ask where is my proof. I have no scientific study just personal observation and the observation of professionals in healthcare. Just in the last week every nurse on a peds floor in florida that got their flu shot has come down with a nasty cold virus. You can do what you want, but don't tell me I have to have one. I prefer not to get sick thank you very much.
Lemmings... Nuff said!
Yeah, just what I want to do.... inject known carcinogens into my bloodstream. No thanks.
Flu shots are a complete was of time. Every time I have had one I get sicker than if I do not. I spent 6 years in the navy and I have been enoculated for tons of crap and those worked but the first time in the Navy I was mandated to get a flu shot I was sick for a week. Pharma want you to think this is a good thing to have and I can tell you right now it does not make any difference to anyone.
If they want greater participation they should quit selling it for $25 a shot. We all know that's a huge markup.
Maybe I was trying to make a point about the disconnect between healthcare and cost PLORK. Thanks for the thoughtful and intelligent reply. You certainly added something important to this forum.
And the earth is flat , so don't bother me with your wacky vaccines! What a bunch of gold-plated weirdos!!! I've had flu shots every year for the last six years and have never had the flu. As I have asthma and have had pneumonia several times, I also get a pneumonia shot. Really, you all sound like a bunch of babies!
Argh!-3719413: since you are obviously an expert in infectious diseases and their spread, it surely must have occurred to you that the more likely explanation of why all the nurses got sick was because they were all exposed to someone who had an infectious disease, perhaps one of their own co-workers, a patient or visitor to the floor, or in some other way. MANY SCIENTIFIC carefully controlled studies have demonstrated time and again that the flu shot does not make people sick. Anyone can become ill after a flu shot, but it is because people become sick all the time, whether or not they got a flu shot. Please, everyone, get the flu shot. You many not realize that very young babies, people allergic to eggs, people who are getting certain AIDS or cancer treatments cannot get flu shots. They are relying on you (not spreading the flu) to protect them.
I'd like to get one for my family and I--just can't afford it.
I've had a flu shot for years without any complications. There are so many uneducated comments posted here, most probably from people who don't vaccinate themselves or their children because they have no idea how devastating the flu or various illnesses can be.
Never had a flu shot. Never had the flu either. I haven't even had a cold for the past couple of years at least. Take Vitamin D! But, I do get the shots for my kids.
The flu vaccine is a killed virus. It is dead. No one, but no one can get the flu from the flu vaccine. The vaccine stimulates the immune system; it does not weaken it. Healthy people normally fight off most if not all viral infections without complications. As such, the flu vaccine is not a major lifesaver for healthy people. However, the flu can be a real killer for people who already have respiratory problems or are very sick. As a result, public health is very interested in getting even healthy people vaccinated so that they do not come down with a sub-clinical infection and bring it into hospitals and nursing homes. Basically, if you choose not to get a flu shot, stay away from hospitals and nursing homes.
I got the flu shot in October 2010. It was the first year they combined the H1N1
and the main flu shot into one shot. I work for a medical facility and not thinking twice, I took the shot. Mid November, I came down with GBS (guillain-barré syndrome). The government denies there is a link between the H1N1 vaccine and GBS but it happened in the mid 70's as well during the first swine flu outbreak. It almost killed me and two years later I am stuck with permanent nerve damage because of it.
They don't know much about GBS. They don't know what causes it and they don't have a test for it.
I'd rather go through the flu any day compared to what I went through with GBS.
They don't know much about GBS. They don't know what causes it and they don't have a test for it.
I'd rather go through the flu any day compared to what I went through with GBS.
We must have been typing at the same time. My comment is right below yours. I am so sorry for you.
I'm so sorry for your loss. I was only 37 at the time when I was hit with it. Within four days I went from running, jumping, swimming, etc, to having to be
lifted into a wheel chair. I was in the middle of a cruise. I was admitted into
the ER in Grand Caymans and medivacced by jet to Miami where I spent 3-1/2
weeks in ICU. I lost all feeling in my hands and feet, was incubated due to
breathing problems, couldn't sit up because I lost all muscle control in my
trunk, complete facial paralysis, and a pneumonia on top it all. One of the
hardest things I've ever gone through in my life. At one point I wanted to just
go to sleep and not wake up, or wake up when it was over.
Like I said, I rather have the flu any day.
It is intubated not incubated. Incubate is to grow. Intubate is to insert a tube into your lungs to breathe.
Spell check FTW. Excuse my spelling.
I've never had a flu shot and never had the flu, but my father was religious about getting his annual flu shot. In 2010, he got his flu shot and on 9/16/12 he died from pulmonary fibrosis as a result of inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (Guillian Barre Syndrome which left him a quadraplegic). I'd rather die from the flu than the horrible way my father died. From this experience, I've heard of young children getting the same syndrome as my father. The flu shot just pisses me off even though I know it has saved many lives.
Why would I have an injection, with such horrid things like animal and foreign human dna, put into my body? Especially since it HAS NOT been tested and proven effective for pregnant women. I suppose people are FINALLY reading up on the ingredients and who profits as well as the injuries that can occur. By the way, my children have NEVER had the flu and I have nor had it in over 15 years. Natural immunity and nursing your babies works.
Down with flu symptoms three days after the shot. Diagnosed with Guillian Barre Syndrome (GBS). While in CCU units at three different hospitals, had two nurses ask: Did you have the flu shot? and 'Those damn flu shots.' One doctor allowed 'Never, never, never with your family history.'
CVS and Walmart now suggest you inform them if you have ever had Guillian-Barre Syndrome. Pull up Kit's Story on Vimeo.
Jomac Nipomo
It's easy to see why we have so many flu epidemics.
I get my flu shot every year... as I work with the public, I owe it to them as much as I owe it to myself, and my family.
A lot of companies will fire you for getting sick- no lie.
Get sick and miss work, your doctor better be really good with FMLA law- or in a lot of companies, you're gone.
Get the damned shot. I'm in my fifties, and I've never experienced a side effect- and I was in the Air Force too- spent years being a pincushion without repercussions.
I was also an Air Force pin cushion (including the swine flu shot in the 70s) and have had repurcussions as have others. Quit telling people what to do based on yourself only
I not only got the flu once after getting a flu shot, but 3 or 4 times. I kept letting doctors talk me into it, until I finally said "enough is enough, no more flu shots". I might have had the flu a time or two after I quit taking the shots, but they never made me as sick as did the shots to prevent the flu did. Since this happens to so many people, I think science should take a look as to why.
Vaccines are very dangerous to health and no one should take them.
Last time I had the flu was 1995 or '96. I have had the flu vaccine every year since. It makes my arm sore, and I feel a bit achy for a day or so, but nothing like the month of uncontrollable coughing I had back then. Since then, no flu, hardly ever even catch a cold or "stomach bug", even when my son comes down with them from school and I'm taking care of him.
The year H1N1 went around, the vaccine wasn't available here until after new infection rates went down. My son caught it, and was sick most of the next 2 months, until bad snows kept everyone home for days at a stretch. No thanks.
I have read several reports that five years vacinations in a row have been found to be related to Alheimer's.
I'd be interested in reading. Can you point me to a source?
I have never had the flu when I have taken the shot. Perhaps it was just luck...but I do not think so. Knowing how many people talk and think themselves into "reactions" to flu shots, eggs, milk and other substances who do not show reactions when given blind tests...do not believe most of these negative responses. If it became "known" that drinking tap water caused some wonderful reaction, many would throw away the expensive bottled water. For the same non-reason, they spend millions to buy bottled water to drink and for little result.
Nothing in the medical world is perfect and without flaw. So, do not use any procedures or medicines if this bothers you too much.
Let's finish this sentence properly:
because Big Pharma
needswants the money.The flu vaccine is made from last year's flu virus, and viruses evolve, so while it may protect you from one strain, it won't guarantee you don't get the flu. All it does is create a frenzy of people who are now terrified of dying from the flu, so they fork over money to the vaccine makers to get the shot.
The medical community and the CDC have lost all credibility.
This article states: "you must get your flu shot because the flu virus mutates so rapidly"
Then later it says - this years vaccination doesn't include any of the swine related virus' but they think the current vaccine may provide some protection
So......maybe last years or the year before that vaccination provides protection against this years flu right?
"we think", "it may" contradicting comments - phaw!
They need to quit dancing around and give us real info if they want to gain any credibility. Quit treating us like idiots and allow us to make up our minds on facts.
As long as I think they are witholding info or withholding that they don't have good info - I'm not into making some pharmaceutical CEO multi millionare richer
I had the flu shot twice. I didn't take it when I was pregnant. However, I was guilted into getting my son the flu shot by our healthcare provider when he was six months old. I was at the doctor's office weekly and sometimes twice a week. He was very ill and had respiratory issues. I had to place him on a nebulizer for over a month. It was awful. Each year, the doctor tries to guilt me into giving him the shot again, but I have refused. I haven't had an episode like that again. I truly believe that it lowers the immune system.