Too Late For The Flu Vaccine
Flu viruses usually cause the most illness during the colder months of the year. In the United States, flu season is from October to May. Most cases happen from late December to early March.
It’s best to get the flu vaccine early in flu season, ideally by the end of October. That way, the body has time to make antibodies that protect it from the flu.
What if you aren’t vaccinated by then? Getting the vaccine later is better than not getting it at all. It’s still flu season well into spring. Even then it’s not too late for you and your family to get the flu vaccine. Many health care providers give flu vaccines through May if the flu virus is still circulating.
Getting a missed flu vaccine late in the season is especially important for people who travel. That’s because the flu can be active around the globe from April to September.
When To See A Doctor
People should try to see a doctor within 24 to 48 hours after flu symptoms appear, as this is when antiviral treatments are most effective.
It is also important to see a doctor if symptoms do not improve after 7 days or new symptoms, such as ear pain, appear.
People should seek emergency medical treatment if:
- breathing becomes difficult or labored
- muscle pain is unbearable or severe enough to prevent walking
- a child develops a fever above 104°F
- when breathing, a child or infant makes loud sounds or pulls in the muscles around their ribs
- a person has seizures, loses consciousness, seems confused, or is unable to communicate effectively
- a baby under the age of 12 weeks develops a fever
- symptoms of chronic medical conditions get worse
- there is intense dizziness that does not go away after a few hours
- a person stops urinating or urinates very rarely
- symptoms get better but then return later and are worse
Effectiveness Of Flu Vaccines
It is too early in the season to be able to make a judgement on the effectiveness of current flu vaccines in protecting against severe illness we simply dont have sufficient data yet. It is possible that that the A vaccine may not be as effective as we would like against the prevalent A viruses, which is why antivirals also need to play a large role in protecting our vulnerable populations.
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How Long Is Flu Season Depends On Where You Live
Its not just winter.
Generally, December through February is considered flu season. But influenza activity often begins to increase as early as October and November, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and while it peaks between December and February, it can last as late as May. Thats partly why you start seeing flu shot warnings while youre still wearing swimsuits and flip-flops on Labor Day weekend since it takes about two weeks after vaccination for the antibodies that protect against flu to develop in the body, the CDC suggests getting before flu season even begins, ideally by the end of October.
But, like all things, flu season can vary depending on where you live and whats going on in a particular year. When researchers recently analyzed data on flu cases reported from 2002 to 2008 in 603 U.S. cities, they found that a citys size and structure play a role in shaping local flu epidemics. Smaller cities seem to experience larger groups of people getting sick in a shorter time frame, while larger cities tend to have more spread-out flu seasons.
Thats why its so important to practice preventative care. And that doesnt just mean getting your flu shot! Taking care of yourself every day is the best way to keep your body in peak condition even when flu season hits.
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How Do I Know If I Have The Flu
If you have fever with cough or sore throat, you may have the flu. If you think you have the flu, stay home from work and school and avoid contact with others so you do not spread the virus. If you think you might have flu and you need to see your doctor, call ahead and let them know you might have the flu. That way, your doctors office can take steps to avoid the spread of flu to others. The doctor may recommend that you be tested for flu.
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Can An Influenza Vaccine Cause Influenza
No, influenza vaccines are safe and do not cause influenza. You might experience a reaction to the vaccination, but this reaction will not be influenza and will be milder than influenza symptoms. Even if you have been vaccinated, it is possible to get influenza. This is because the years vaccine is designed to protect against the seasons expected types of influenza, but not against every type of influenza. Furthermore, your individual immunity might make you more susceptible to a specific type of influenza. Nonetheless, vaccination is still recommended even if you do get influenza, the symptoms will be milder and therefore less dangerous.
Symptoms Level Off And Fade
After symptoms peak, you will gradually start to feel a little better. The cough and fatigue tend to be the last symptoms to fully resolve, and they can linger for weeks after the infection. Most people feel back to normal within 3 weeks after the peak of their symptoms.
In this recovery phase, you may also notice yellow or green mucus when you cough or blow their noses. This is completely normal and is to be expected. As long as there is no return of fever or progressively worsening symptoms, this congestion does not mean that theres another infection or that you need antibiotics.
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Tis The Season For The Cold And Flu
Find out when cold and flu season begins, peaks, and ends.
Unless you live in a bubble, chances are you will be exposed to the cold and flu virus. While these contagious viruses can be found year-round in the United States, they are most common during the fall and winter. Cold and flu activity often begins to increase in October.1 You can monitor activity in your area with the Theraflu Cold and Flu Tracker.
Advice For Diagnosing Influenza
There is a spectrum of tests that can be used to detect influenza. Some of them are faster and more accurate than others. Typically, patients will need to see a nurse or physician to receive a diagnostic test for the flu. For more information about how influenza is diagnosed, review the CDCs guide for diagnosing the flu.
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Are Flu Shots Safe
Flu shots hold an excellent safety record, according to the CDC. For more than the past 50 years, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely received flu shots. Flu shots come with minimal risks and help ward off the virus both to protect yourself and the people around you. It is the single best way to avoid catching the flu and spreading it along to others.
How Does Influenza Spread
Influenza spreads easily from person to person through coughing, sneezing or face-to-face contact.
The virus can also spread when a person touches tiny droplets from the cough or sneeze of an infected person or object and then touches their own eyes, mouth or nose before washing their hands.
An infected person can spread the influenza virus even before feeling sick. An adult can spread the virus from about 1 day before to 5 days after symptoms start. Young children may be able to spread the virus for a longer period of time.
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What To Expect For The 2021
This time of the year is often associated with the holidays, but there is another season that has many in the medical professional worried and thats flu season. The 2021-2022 flu season is expected to be especially active because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The flu virus is most active during the fall and winter months. Flu season usually begins in October and peaks between December and February . Last years flu season was very mild, and because of that cases of the flu are expected to be higher this year, especially as COVID-prevention measures like hand washing, social distancing and masking are relaxed across the country.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends that anyone over the age of six months get a flu shot every year, unless recommended otherwise by a medical professional. People at especially high risk for the flu include:
- Adults 65 years and older
- Children under the age of two
- Pregnant women
- Residents of nursing homes or other long-term facilities
- People with pre-existing conditions
In addition to the flu vaccine, other ways to reduce the risk for the flu are frequent handwashing, covering your mouth when coughing, and avoiding people who are sick. Many of the same ways used to limit the spread of COVID.
Persona 5 Flu Season: Which Days To Avoid Dungeon Crawling In Mementos
The Flu Season in Persona 5 can be timed down to 11/13, 11/14, 12/8 and 12/9, based on my personal experience. During these days, a very powerful enemy that you can encounter in the Mementos dungeon can be afflicted with a status effect: despair. The Reaper, like in Persona 3, will come for your party if you remain idle too long. It’s an extremely difficult fight, so it’s best just to avoid the Reaper.
However, there’s a special trophy called “A Unique Rebel” that you can net by defeating the Reaper. There’s one very easy way to kill off the Reaper, and it involves flu season.
Enter mementos during the flu season on one of the days above, and the Reaper may be afflicted with the despair status condition. This will happen at random, so you may want to save before flu season begins and keep trying to nab the Reaper in case you miss out. The despair status will cause the Reaper to kill itself. Make no attempt to fight the Reaper unless you see the despair ailment.
Once you’ve scouted a suicidal Reaper, you’ll be able to nab the trophy and you’ll be well on your way to a platinum trophy in Persona 5. Who said flu season wasn’t useful?
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How Does The Influenza Virus Spread Around The World
Influenza is carried by people from place to place, transmitted from person to person mostly by coughs, sneezes and breathing. In temperate climates of both the northern and southern hemispheres, the influenza season happens in the winter. In the tropics, influenza viruses can infect people all year long. In this age of international travel, people can catch influenza and bring it by plane to their home country even outside of the regular season.
Similarities Between The Symptoms Of The Flu And Covid
The flu and COVID-19 are different viruses. They’re very contagious and have similar symptoms. This can make it hard to tell the difference between the flu and COVID-19 when symptoms appear.
If you start to develop symptoms, follow the same precautions taken for COVID-19.
This year is more important than ever for everyone 6 months and older to get the flu shot. This will help prevent the flu and flu-related complications. Preventing the flu will also help reduce stress on the health care system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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When Does The Flu Season Begin And End Typically October Through March But Experts Say It Can Extend Beyond That Stretch By A Few Weeks On Either Side
How long does flu season last? Typically, you’ll hear October through March, but it can start earlier than that and extend into summer, the Centers for Disease Control says.
You likely read about the historic and unsettling flu season of 2017-18: In America, some 900,000 people were hospitalized and 80,000 died from the flu and its complications. The 2017-18 flu season was the worst weve seen since 2011, when there were 56,000 deaths. By comparison, flu-related deaths during a typical flu season number around 30,000 .
During the 2017-2018 season, the percentage of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza was at or above the epidemic threshold for 16 consecutive weeks, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . During the past five seasons, the average number of weeks this indicator was above threshold was 11.
In 2018-19, the flu season reared its ugly head early, with news of five children who died from a deadly viral strain in October and November. And December brought more bad news, with flu-related deaths announced in Mississippi, Montana, and North Carolinaplus multiple flu-related deaths in San Diego County in Californiaduring the first week of the month.
FLU UPDATES, STATE BY STATE
Individual states typically have a flu surveillance tracking page online as well, as posted by Department of Health or Health & Human Services divisions. Here are just a few examples, with a full directory link below:
What Is Seasonal Influenza
Seasonal influenza, also known as the flu, is an illness that causes fever, headache, tiredness, cough, sore throat, nasal congestion and body aches. It is usually spread from person to person by coughing and sneezing. Flu season in Ohio can begin as early as October and run as late as March. However, it is not uncommon for sporadic cases to appear all year long.
Most people who get the flu usually recover in one to two weeks, but the flu can be deadly. An estimated 200,000 people are hospitalized with the flu each year in the U.S. On average, it is estimated that there are more than 20,000 flu related deaths many of which could have been prevented with a flu vaccine.
Flu vaccines are designed to protect against the influenza viruses that experts predict will be the most common during the upcoming season. There are three kinds of influenza viruses commonly circulate among people today which include: Influenza A viruses, Influenza A viruses, and Influenza B viruses. Each year, these viruses are used to produce seasonal influenza vaccine.
Influenza Vaccine Composition for the 202122 Season
Influenza vaccines expected to be available in the United States for the 202122 season will be quadrivalent vaccines. For the 202122 season, U.S. egg-based influenza vaccines will contain HA derived from
For the 202122 season, U.S. cell culturebased inactivated and recombinant influenza vaccines will contain HA derived from
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How Effective Are Flu Vaccines
The effectiveness of flu vaccines, like their composition, varies from year to year. If the strains of influenza included in the vaccine are well matched to the strains causing illness in the community, the vaccine will be more effective than if they aren’t.
Generally, when the strains are well-matched, the vaccine reduces the chances that the flu will spread through the general population by between 40% and 60%.
Remember, though, that the vaccine is not a guarantee that you won’t get sick. Even if it works well, it won’t protect you from every illnessonly influenza. Many people decide flu vaccines don’t work when they get a bad cold or a stomach virus after getting a flu shot. The vaccine only protects against respiratory illness caused by the influenza virus.
The Symptoms And Stages Of The Flu
Exposure to the flu happens when you breathe in the virus from the air. This can occur when someone with the flu has coughed, sneezed, or breathed near you. Exposure may also happen if you touch your eyes, nose, or mouth after touching something with the virus on it. Heres what happens in your body after youre exposed.
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How Does Flu Spread
The flu virus is in the wet spray that comes out of the nose and mouth of someone who coughs or sneezes. If you are close enough to a person with the flu when they cough or sneeze, you can breathe in the virus and get sick. Flu symptoms start 1 – 4 days after a person breathes in the virus.
Flu is spread easily from person to person. The virus can also live for a short time on things you touch like doorknobs, phones and toys. After you touch these objects, you can catch the virus when you touch your mouth, nose, or eyes. Adults with flu can spread it from about one day before symptoms appear to about one week after. Children can spread the flu even longer after they get sick.
Why Are Quadrivalent Vaccines Available In Some Countries But Not Others
So far, trivalent vaccines have been the most widely used vaccines in Europe. Trivalent vaccines protect against 3 influenza viruses usually 2 type A viruses and 1 type B virus. Discussions on the advantages of shifting to quadrivalent vaccines, which protect against 2 type A and 2 type B viruses, are ongoing. Quadrivalent vaccines are more expensive, but studies in some countries have shown that they may be cost-effective if overall costs for the health-care sector are taken into account. However, the economic background varies from country to country.
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When Is Flu Season Exactly
Although there are regional differences, cases of the flu begin to pick up around October, peak in December through February, and can last until May, says Natasha Bhuyan, MD, an infectious disease specialist and family physician in Phoenix, Arizona.
There are several reasons that the flu tends to be worse in the fall and winter, she says. For one thing, “The influenza virus tends to prefer cooler, dry weather, as its viral capsule can survive better in these conditions,” she explains. What’s more, people also spend lots of time indoors during flu season, “making the virus more easily spread from person to person.”