It always amazes me that so many of my patients resist receiving their annual flu shots. These are the same people who clamor for MRIs, CT scans, colonoscopies, and other time-consuming, expensive, unpleasant procedures, yet balk at getting a little jab in the arm once a year. (Don’t get me wrong, these other tests are important, especially the colonoscopy, but it’s often easier to “sell” them than it is a flu shot.)
Some of their reasons for rejection are:
A. “I had one last year.”
B. “No, sir, never again. I got the flu after the last shot.”
C. “Look, doc, I never get the flu.”
D. “I’ll take it only if I get the flu.”
E. “I can’t take it because I am allergic to eggs and chicken.”
Here’s how I respond to each of these excuses.
A. Unlike other vaccinations, such as the one against pneumonia, which lasts for years and usually need not be taken again after age 65, a new formulation of flu vaccine is made annually because the specific flu virus changes from year to year. Last year’s supply won’t protect you.
B. The flu vaccine contains the dead virus. It cannot cause the flu. If you come down with the infection after you were vaccinated, it’s because you were already harboring the bug, and it takes about 2 weeks for the vaccine to work.
C. Everybody is vulnerable to the flu. If you have never had it, it’s probably only a matter of time until you do — unless you get the shot.
D. Once you come down with the symptoms, it’s too late for the vaccine to work (although now some effective antiviral drugs can reduce the duration of the illness and the severity of its symptoms).
E. Having an allergy to eggs or chicken is the only valid reason not to have the shot.
Every year, more than 100,000 people are hospitalized because of the flu, and 36,000 of them die. Most have not been vaccinated and are older than age 65. The vaccine protects 70 to 90 percent of healthy adults against the flu and prevents it from developing into pneumonia in 50 to 60 percent of the elderly and those with compromised immune systems.
Here’s What’s New
The Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, compiled data from 280,000 men and women 65 years and older during flu season in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Those who received a flu shot not only had a 29 to 32 percent lower incidence of pneumonia and flu but also were 19 percent less likely to be hospitalized for heart disease and had 16 to 23 percent fewer hospital admissions for stroke. Overall, a flu shot reduced the risk of dying of any cause by 48 to 50 percent. I wonder if these impressive figures will have any impact on all the nay Sayers in my practice.
Here’s more good news. If you’re between ages 5 and 49, you can now be vaccinated with a nasal spray, recently approved by the FDA. No more needles!
Now for some bad news. It seems that the flu vaccine is not quite as effective as we used to think, especially for the elderly. Men and women older than age 80 are many more times likely to develop influenza even after being vaccinated than those 15 to 20 years younger. That’s probably because their immune systems are unable to respond to the vaccine and so don’t produce enough antibodies to ward off the infection. The practical implications of this observation are that if you are older and were given the vaccine but develop what appears to be the flu, see your doctor about it. Don’t assume that it’s only a cold simply because you were vaccinated.
The Bottom Line
The flu vaccine remains the number one safeguard against the flu. Young or old, healthy or sick, get vaccinated — but not if you’re allergic to eggs or chicken. And if you’re between ages 5 and 49, you can have the vaccine as a nasal spray.
Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld’s legions of fans follow his regular column in Parade magazine and his popular Sunday-morning television series Sunday Housecall on FOX News Channel. In addition to his numerous scientific publications and medical textbooks for doctors, he has written nine New York Times bestsellers. He is a distinguished member of the faculty at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University and attending physician at New York Presbyterian Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
(Reprinted from
Dr. Isadore Rosenfeld’s Breakthrough Health 2004: 157 Up-to-the-Minute Medical Discoveries, Treatments, and Cures That Can Save Your Life, from America’s Most Trusted Doctor! by Isadore Rosenfeld, M.D.
For more information, please visit www.writtenvoices.com.
