Saturday, January 08, 2000
Vaccine is best way to escape flu
So how can you protect yourself from the flu? The best way to avoid the flu (along with most other infectious winter bugs) is to follow basic personal hygiene, said Malcolm Adcock, Cincinnati's health commissioner.
• Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze.
• Wash your hands often, including before meals and after every trip to the restroom.
• Try to minimize close contact with other sick people.
The main line of defense, though, is the flu vaccine.
It takes about two weeks after getting a shot for the body to build up to maximum immunity. But the vaccine wears off over time. Among younger people, the protection lasts six to nine months. Among seniors, it lasts about three or four months.
Given the fact that the flu is already in town, if you missed the vaccine, there is little point getting it now.
Health officials would like to see every senior get a flu shot every year. So far, an estimated 66 percent actually get them, said Dr. Tim Uyeki, a medical epidemiologist with the influenza branch of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Exact figures are unavailable, but the vaccine rates may be even higher in the Tristate after two years of aggressive flu-shot campaigns led by the Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati.
However, the CDC reports that an estimated 30 percent of all health workers, nationwide, get their flu shots.
“That's poor,” Dr. Uyeki said. “There is a potential for health-care workers to contribute to the spread of influenza among institutional residents or patients.”
Many people also do not understand that the flu vaccine itself does not provide guaranteed protection.
According to the CDC, the vaccine prevents 70 percent to 90 percent of influenza infections among younger, healthy adults. But for older people — who have weaker immune systems just because of their age — the success rates drop off.
Outside a nursing home or other health-care setting, the vaccine prevents 30 percent to 70 percent of infections among seniors.
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