What You Should Know for Flu Season 2017

what you should know about flu season

There have been some significant updates for staying healthy during flu season.

With the winter comes the flu season. Flu season commonly peaks between December and February and can start as early as November. Now is the time to get educated on what you need to do to stay healthy during this season.

While living a healthy lifestyle, such as eating a balanced diet and exercising often can help to boost your immune system, sometimes, you can’t help picking up the flu. After all, it doesn’t take much to infect whole schools and offices.

Influenza (the ‘flu’), can cause serious illness and, in some cases, even death, especially among older adults, very young children, pregnant women, and people with certain chronic medical conditions. To protect your family and yourself this season, here’s what you need to know.

The live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) should not be used. LAIV or the nasal spray vaccine is not recommended for use during the 2017-2018 season. This is largely due to concerns about its effectiveness.

This season, only injectable flu vaccines (flu shots) are recommended. Options include:

  • Standard dose flu shots
  • High-dose shots for older people
  • Shots made with adjuvant for older people
  • Shots made with virus grown in cell culture
  • Shots made using a vaccine production technology

There are different flu viruses

It’s common for new flu viruses to appear each year. Typically, flu shots protect people from three or four viruses. For 2017-2018, a three-component vaccine must include:

  • An A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
  • An A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus
  • A B/Brisbane/60/2008-like (B/Victoria lineage) virus

The time to get vaccinated is now

It typically takes around two weeks after receiving a flu shot for antibodies to develop to protect against flu, so make plans to get vaccinated early in the season. If possible, get a flu jab before November ends. If that is not possible, note that getting vaccinated later can still be beneficial.

Are you yet to receive your flu shotVisit Sand Canyon Urgent Care in Irvine and Stanton. Whether you need the flu shot or urgent medical attention from being exposed to the flu, we can help. Call our Irvine location at (949) 417-0272 or our Stanton location on (714) 604-2850 to get started today.