USA – “No one notices when the flu shot is effective other than they just haven’t had the flu. It is true that the flu shot isn’t 100% guaranteed you are not going to get the flu, but it has been proven to reduce the symptoms. The flu shot is made up of strains of viruses that are studied to be common across the US. Sometimes a rare strain will get passed around at work or school and make you ill. The good thing is getting the flu vaccine will help with a lot of the symptoms even if you do get sick, so it is not as extreme,” said Circleville/Ashville Apothocary.
The CDC is reporting a mild flu season this year with early reports in Mid-November of children aged 6-17 year at 45.6% a increase of 6.8 percentage points from last year. Adults also increased 6.4% to 44.9%.
Why? This year the CDC says the vaccine hit the mark when it comes to H1N1 flu viruses being dominant flu strain this year at 90% of people having this flu type. Last years strains were a different mutated flu H3N2 a stronger version of the flu, and only 10% of people caught this strain this year.
“This data doesn’t tell us about how its prevented complications, which is one of the main reason we give the flu vaccine,” said Dr. William Shaffner a infectious disease expert. “Milder Illness means that people are less likely to have complications that result in hospitalizations or even death.”
According to the CDC 50 million people caught the flu in the 2017-2018 season and 80,000 died and was considered the worse flu season in 20 plus years. CDC estimates between 12,000 and 19,000 deaths from a majority of the season October-February this year.
Source for stats and information: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/fluvaxview/nifs-estimates-nov2018.htm
