Print this story |
E-mail story |
This story has 1 comment Add your own |
iPod friendly | Bookmark this
What is this?
No excuses: Get the flu shot
Published Tuesday, October 21, 2008
The flu season has arrived. In past years there was a shortage of the flu vaccine, so there were limitations on who should get the shot. This year, the Centers for Disease Control is expanding its guidelines on who should get the shot.
According to Dr. Steven Lamm, a contributor to Best Life Magazine, anyone with a pulse should get it. He gave some important facts on an NBC Today Shows segment titled “Facts and Tips for the Flu Season.”
Guidelines given by the CDC on who should get the shot include the following: children 6 months to 18 years old, adults 50 and older, pregnant women, those with chronic medical conditions and those who live with or work with anyone at risk.
Lamm’s suggestion would include those between 18 and 49. He said that the only ones who should be excluded are those who have an allergic reaction to vaccines.
Other facts and tips were as follows:
About 80 percent of the population is at risk. You can unknowingly start spreading the influenza virus to your family, children and co-workers one day before you actually become ill.
People confuse the common cold with influenza, but the vaccine will not prevent the common cold. It will prevent the influenza virus, which generally circulates in January through March but can appear as early as October.
The most important thing the vaccine will do is prevent the complications of influenza, primarily pneumonia, because 20,000 to 30,000 people die from that illness every yearly. Therefore, when you get the vaccine, you are protecting yourself, as well as others around you.
Some people think that the vaccine brings on a cold. Lamm said there is no way the vaccine can make a person sick, because it is a dead vaccine. He said that if a person got a cold after the shot, it was because of the incubation of a host of other viruses that were present in the body.
He said the nasal flu spray is recommended to those between the ages of 2 and 49, but it shouldn’t be given to pregnant women, people receiving chemotherapy or people with HIV. To those who are healthy, this spray could be slightly more effective than the shot.
The good news this year is that there is an abundance of the vaccine made available to the public in many locations and through many organizations and health care facilities. Now, it’s up to you to get it.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THIS STORY?
Comments
Posted by OD (anonymous) on October 23, 2008 at 8:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Under a Obama WH and his universal healthcare, seniors could be rejected because of age and poor health. In the UK it was decided that many seniors wont get the meds they need. The meds would do more good for younger citizens. In other words. your old and it would be a waste of money and it would be better suited for the younger to live a longer life. The cycle would always come full circle. Even the Canadians are beginning to suffer as well. The View wont tell you that either. On another issue i suggest a good reading its called Prairie Fire written by Barrak HUSSEIN Obama's friend Bill Ayers. It was written by himself and his wife the admitted murderer of private citizens and children. It is about their plan to commit genocide against American citizens. It also dedicted to Sirhan Sirhan who shot and killed Robert Kennedy but the Kennedy family took Obama under their wing and gave him the support. Says alot about that family as well.You wont hear about that on the View either.
Post a comment (Terms of Use Policy)
(Requires free registration.)