Community Update

Flu Prevention Is Actually Simple

Interview by Elizabeth Schainbaum

It may still feel like summer, but
it’s time to start preparing for winter. And that means understanding influenza,
otherwise known as the flu.

Kaiser Permanente Walnut Creek’s Randy Bergen, MD, is the clinical lead for the Kaiser Permanente Northern
California Influenza Task Force, and he’s also the featured guest for the next Health Talks Online monthly webinar titled “Preventing Colds and
the Flu” on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 12:30 p.m.

In this interview, Dr. Bergen shares the
number 1 strategy for preventing influenza, why people can’t get the flu from
the flu vaccine, and how severe the flu season is expected to be.

What’s the forecast for the upcoming flu
season?

We think it’s going to be a
fairly routine flu season.

Our forecasts are based on what
went on during the winter in the Southern Hemisphere. It was a fairly standard
flu season there; there wasn’t an emergence of a major new strain.
Nevertheless, influenza
is the most serious respiratory illness every
winter, affecting millions of people. Every flu season has the risk of causing
serious disease and illness.

What’s the number 1 strategy we
can all use to prevent the flu? 

Get the vaccine. It continues to be the
most effective, safest way to prevent the flu. To some people, the
vaccine’s effectiveness can seem low. One study says
it’s 30 to 40 percent effective, while the CDC (Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention) says it’s 60 percent. But what does that really
mean? We would like it to be 100 percent effective, but it’s not, partly
because the virus changes every year, and our immune system’s response can
vary. 

There’s a telling statistic from a 2003 study
of over 100,000 people over the age of 65: For every 61 doses of the
vaccine, 1 hospitalization or death was prevented. Even when we see a 30
to 40 percent benefit, it has huge potential advantage for communities,
families, and workplaces.  

What about hand washing?

Basic hygiene such as washing your hands and
covering your cough will protect you against all germs. Everyone should
practice good hygiene. As a single strategy against influenza, though, the
vaccine is the best protection.

What’s one of the biggest
misconceptions about the vaccine?

People mistakenly believe that they can get
sick from the vaccine. The vaccine is made by growing the virus and extracting
certain parts to go into the vaccine. It’s just a piece of the germ. It can
cause your arm to be sore, and that can lead to general achiness, but to
get seriously sick is not possible.

The other part is that the term
‘flu’ has been used more generally, and we are not always sick with the
flu. The vaccine protects against a specific winter virus, and there are
plenty of other viruses out there that the vaccine doesn’t protect you
against.

It’s coincidence when someone gets sick
around the same time they receive the vaccine. Antibodies are the agents that
fight off the flu germs, so the flu vaccine isn’t as effective during the
first two weeks. That’s why we encourage people to get the flu shot
in October and November before flu season hits.

Sign up for this Health Talks Online. Can’t
make it? You can catch a recording of it and other past talks.