Flu Vaccinations

Now that summer is out the way, fall and winter months are upon us. For many this means coughing, body aches and the dreaded flu bug. Ksan's Nicole Sanchez spoke with a local doctor who says the center for disease control is stocking up on flu vaccinations this year.



It's an illness that usually comes with the fall and winter season known as the flu, and the symptoms can range from coughing, sneezing, to even much worst.

"Every year we treat hundreds of patients with flu and flu like symptoms and absolutely the biggest risk is death and it does take the lives of many every year," Erika Aguirre San Angelo Community Medical Center's Infection Control Employee Health Nurse says.

Shannon Legacy's Chief Medical Officer Derrill Stuart says, "It weakens them to where other illnesses such as the bacterial ammonia may cause further problems and kill them on the average 36,000 die every year from influenza."

So with the flu season right around the corner and in order to prevent some influenza deaths, the vaccinations are ready to go, actually more than ever a total of 134 million doses. 34 million more doses than last year.

"Every year the center for control health organization picks out the three strains of flu that they think are most likely to cause infection in the next flu season. Once they make that decision it takes about nine months to manufacture the flu vaccine even with the skills that they have and the techniques that they have it's still a difficult process. In the past there have been manufacturing problems with it. They were causing concerns of safety, many of the doses were not safe to administer, this year there haven't been any of those problems," Stuart says.

Flu experts from Shannon Legacy Center and San Angelo Community Medical Center say that the age group that this vaccination is mostly intended for ranges from young to old.

"The flu vaccine is recommended for children, it's recommended for anybody over 50 those are the high risk ranges for people, it's available and recommended for anybody who wants to prevent themselves from getting the flu," Aguirre says.
 
So by rolling up your sleeve you may prevent yourself from being part of the 20% of the population that is infected by influenza.

"You have to realize that even though it's a very good and safe vaccine it's not 100% effective so you can still get the flu but that's unlikely," Stuart says.

 

The best time that experts say to get vaccinated is late October or early November. For more information about the flu you can log onto www.cdc.gov/flu