The Time Is Now To Stop The Flu Before It Infects You

With flu activity increasing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC) primary care physicians suggest that now is the time to get your flu shot if you haven’t already done so.




Influenza, also known as the flu, even as a mild case, can present itself with a fever, fatigue, painful muscle/body aches, and a runny, stuffy nose. Symptoms can last from a few days to less than two weeks, but, for those with chronic illnesses including diabetes, heart disease, or in cancer treatment, the complications of influenza can be life threatening.




GBMC physicians recommend to people of all ages that getting your annual flu vaccine, even if you were diagnosed with the flu last year, is the best way to protect yourself and your family from the flu.




“The flu can spread quickly and that’s why it’s important you get your flu shot and the earlier the better,” GBMC doctors advise.




GBMC physicians also stress that the flu viruses are constantly changing and that diverse flu viruses can spread and cause sickness each season. Viruses evolve and change annually and is the main reason the medical community can’t create a long-term immunity to them. The flu virus is shrewd and vaccines are made annually to guard against the flu viruses that research shows would be most common.




This year’s flu vaccine is available and there are several types of flu vaccines including the standard injectable and special formulations for those 65 or older as well as people allergic to eggs. The viruses in the injectable vaccine have been inactivated, so If you do get the flu after receiving your flu shot, it is likely that you had already been exposed to the flu, as the vaccine takes about two weeks to take effect, or unfortunately that the vaccine did not cover the strain of flu that infected you.




GBMC doctors point out that it is also important for people not to automatically assume that they are suffering from the flu or that their flu shot did not work. Many people can misunderstand what the flu is, think that their flu shot didn’t work, and as a result then they don’t get their flu shot the following year. The flu, for both kids and adults, is a respiratory illness. Just vomiting or diarrhea is not the flu, as many people would commonly think.




GBMC docs add that the flu shot is safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women, who can pass on antibodies to their babies that will help protect them. Research studies have shown that the flu vaccine received by the mother while pregnant provides immunity to the baby during infancy.




Getting the flu while pregnant can endanger the growing baby such as leading to preterm delivery, as well as cause complications for the mother due to pregnancy causing a weakened immune system. Children may need to get the second part of their flu vaccine four weeks after their first one, if it is their first time receiving the flu vaccine.