With the weather growing colder and the daylight hours becoming shorter, the signs are clear: The season for coughs and chills and that all-over achy feeling has arrived.
Yes, flu season is here in Clark County and throughout the country, and health officials warn that it could be a severe one. That is because, nationally, the H3N2 strain of influenza is in prominent circulation, and vaccines are less effective against that strain than against many others.
Still, the Washington State Department of Health emphasizes the importance of receiving a flu shot: “Annual flu vaccination is the best method of prevention against illness, followed by covering your cough/proper hand washing and staying home from school or work when you are sick. The flu shot takes up to two weeks to provide full protection and is now available at pharmacies and clinic locations throughout the state.” Vaccines are recommended for everyone older than 6 months, including pregnant women.
Even when vaccines are not a particularly good match for that year’s strain, the importance of receiving a shot should not be underestimated. As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted in a report last week: “Even with influenza vaccine effectiveness in the range of 30 percent to 60 percent, influenza vaccination prevents millions of infections and medical visits and tens of thousands of influenza-associated hospitalizations each year in the United States.”
That brings up the importance of vaccines in general, whether annual shots to protect against influenza or childhood shots to avoid diseases such as measles. Despite a persistent and misguided backlash against vaccines, they have transformed human health throughout the world. Look at it this way: Less than a century ago, before the widespread use of immunizations, a worldwide flu pandemic resulted in at least 50 million deaths. Life expectancy in the United States alone dropped by 12 years. Thanks to modern science, such a pandemic is unthinkable today.
Still, influenza is an unavoidable part of winter. The CDC estimates that during the 2016-17 season, 25 million Americans suffered from flu-related illnesses, resulting in 11 million medical visits. And last year’s flu season arrived unusually late; while the typical season is from December to February, last year’s peak did not occur until mid-March.
There’s no telling when the season will arrive in full force this year, but warning signs are in the air. In Clark County, from Nov. 12 to 18, 11 percent of influenza tests came back positive. A positivity rate of more than 10 percent indicates that flu transmission is occurring in the community, and the peril is likely to persist for months.
The cost can be enormous. According to a report last year by Health Affairs, American adults sick with the flu racked up $5.8 billion in medical visits, medications, and lost productivity. Reducing such costs relies upon herd immunity, which occurs when a significant portion of the public is immunized against a particular disease. While flu vaccines are not 100 percent effective, the more people that are immunized, the greater the benefits for the community.
As Dr. Richard Webby wrote for Time magazine: “Preventing a flu outbreak isn’t just the responsibility of scientists and immunologists. The other half of the equation is the public’s civic duty to help protect one another by getting the flu vaccination even if you don’t think you need it.”
In other words, getting a flu shot is not just about you, and this is the season for goodwill toward all.
