While the fear of ebola has come and gone, Americans should still be worried about the flu.
“This year probably 25 million people in our country are going to get the flu,” said Joseph De Gaetano, professor of family medicine at the College of Osteopathic Medicine.
In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 43 states are experiencing high flu activity.
“The flu” is short for influenza, which, as opposed to the common cold, is caused by a virus. The symptoms include high fever, body aches and headaches.
“Most people who get the flu have to be in bed because it’s so debilitating,” DeGaetano said.
The flu is spread through respiratory droplets that come from the mouth when we talk. Breathing in these droplets from someone with the virus spreads the flu. People can also get the flu from touching respiratory droplets on places like countertops, desktops and computers and then touching their faces.
De Gaetano said the best way to prevent the disease is hand washing.
“Washing your hands is the most important thing to do to prevent the spread not only of the flu but of any communicable disease,” De Gaetano said.
The other option is the flu shot. Though De Gaetano recommends everyone gets a flu vaccine, those who are allergic shouldn’t have it.
Flu shots are available every year to fight the virus, which mutates and changes, becoming resistant to the vaccine. However, this year’s vaccine has not been as effective against this year’s strain, H3N2, as in previous years. De Gaetano said different types of flu viruses are put in the vaccine based on last year’s virus for the body to produce antibodies since there is no way to predict the next year’s virus.
“The problem we’re having is that the flu vaccine for this year, unfortunately, is not really covering this year’s virus strain,” De Gaetano said.
This is why more people have the flu than in the past few years. De Gaetano said more people in the U.S. will die from the flu this year than from any other communicable disease.
“The important thing to understand is that no one ever dies from the flu virus itself,” De Gaetano said. “When you have the flu virus, because you’re immune system is overwhelmed and trying to fight off the virus, other bugs can attack you. What people actually die from is pneumonia.”
Because flu season is from November to March, it’s recommended that people get the flu shot at the end August since it won’t beginning helping the body for six to eight weeks.
“If you’re exposed on Nov. 1 to the flu, the likelihood that the shot I gave you in October is going to help you is unlikely because your body has not reacted to that shot and developed its own immunity against the disease,” De Gaetano said.
However, De Gaetano said it’s not too late to get the shot.
“There’s still value in people getting their flu shot in the middle of the season,” De Gaetano said. “If I give you a flu shot in January, it will still help to protect you from exposure to the flu in the end of February and March.”
People more susceptible to the flu are seniors, people with chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer and young people.
“What’s interesting is college-age people tend to be very susceptible to the flu,” De Gaetano said. “No one knows why. That’s why we very much recommend that college-age students, particularly those living in dorms, absolutely need to get their flu vaccine because your exposure to other students is very high.”
De Gaetano said that some myths about the vaccine is that you get the flu from getting the vaccine. Though vaccines can have side effects, such as pain at the site of injection, this pain is actually the body making the necessary antibodies to fight the virus.
“Overarchingly, it’s an extremely safe vaccine to get,” De Gaetano said.
Another myth is that medications like Tamiflu fight the flu. In reality, these only reduce the duration of flu symptoms by one day. In addition, the virus develops resistance to these medicines.
“That’s why when you see your doctor, if you’re an otherwise healthy person, and you have the flu, we don’t give you anything for it other than chicken soup because this medicine doesn’t really do anything to help,” De Gaetano said.
Flu vaccines are available at pharmacies like Walgreens and CVS. NSU students have the option of getting a flu shot at the Student Medical Center in the Sanford L. Ziff Health Care Center.
For more information about the current flu season, visit cdc.gov/flu. To contact the Student Medical Center, call 954-262-1262 or visit nova.edu/smc/index.html.
