Why you and your family need a flu shot this year

Flu shots are recommended for anyone older than six months. — Dreamstime/TNS

IF YOU haven't had the flu in a few years, there's a reason. As Dr Nipunie Rajapakse, a paediatric infectious diseases physician with the Mayo Clinic Children's Center shares, that's all the more reason to ensure you and your family are vaccinated this year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone six months and older get a flu shot.

"We know that our population-level immunity to influenza is lower than usual because we've had lower rates during the Covid-19 times," says Rajapakse.

Public health measures during the pandemic – wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing – not only help reduce Covid-19 transmission but also lowered the spread of the flu.

"Fewer people have had influenza infection and illness. They don't have the antibodies from that experience. We're all the more dependent on the antibodies from vaccination to protect us in that situation," she says.

Why get a flu shot

Rajapakse says getting vaccinated is an important way to build immunity and prevent infection. "And so the recommendations still remain that anyone over six months of age should get an influenza vaccine this year," she says.

This is especially true of young children, older adults and those with weakened immune systems who are at higher risk of severe illness due to the flu. "People's protection is going to come from vaccination rather than recent infection. And that makes it all the more important to get the vaccine," says Rajapakse.

While everyone aged six months and older should get a yearly flu vaccine, it's especially important for those at a higher risk of severe flu complications.

Those at higher risk of complications from flu include young children under age two, adults older than 65, residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, people who are pregnant or plan to be pregnant during flu season, those with weakened immune systems, people with chronic illnesses, such as asthma, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease and diabetes.

Getting the flu shot has important benefits. It reduces flu cases, doctor visits, missed work and school days due to flu, and lessens symptom severity, lowering flu-related hospitalisations and deaths.

Along with vaccination, practising good hand hygiene and avoiding people who are ill are ways to prevent transmission and illness. – Mayo Clinic News Network/Tribune News Service