Posted on 02/15/2008 9:01:06 PM PST by metmom
ATLANTA — The flu season is getting worse, and U.S. health officials say it's partly because the flu vaccine doesn't protect against most of the spreading flu bugs.
The flu shot is a good match for only about 40 percent of this year's flu viruses, officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
The situation has even deteriorated since last week when the CDC said the vaccine was protective against roughly half the circulating strains. In good years, the vaccine can fend off 70 to 90 percent of flu bugs.
Infections from an unexpected strain have been booming, and now are the main agent behind most of the nation's lab-confirmed flu cases, said Dr. Joe Bresee, the CDC's chief of influenza epidemiology.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I hear there’s two kinds of flu going around in NYS. One is the classic flu, the other is a stomach bug.
Lots of people have been sick with colds, also.
We had an outbreak in Indiana.
We’ve done the stomach bug and the flu too. One kid managed to deal with the flu in two days, I’m still coughing two weeks later, and my son has been running a fever for a week now. And I had the flu shot. Bleah. Here’s hoping dh and the older two don’t come down with it.
We got it here. My husband has been sick and in bed for the whole week. He didn’t have the flu shot.
I got the flu next, but got a prescription of tamiflu, plus I had the shot. I’ve heard that having the shot makes it less severe. I’ve been much better than my husband.
My daughter has it, but she seems to be getting much better. She had a flu shot.
I’m hoping my other daughter doesn’t get sick. She had a grand mal seizure in October and has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder. Getting sick lowers seizure threshold.
My son isn’t sick yet, but he said a lot of kids at school are getting sick.
I have refused to get one since - and have not had the flu since.
When I was in the work-a-day world, I'd watch the young folk all dutifully get their free flu shots, and then, within the next two weeks, come down with the flu. And they were always puzzled that I didn't.
My theory is that when you are given the flu shot - a live bug - it weakens your system. Then along come a different flu strain - your immune system is weak and blam - you get sick.
I protect myself as best I can with hand sanitizers, washing hands, careful what I touch when out, etc...and if exposed to someone who's ill, or if I get that first tell-tale sharp twinge in the nose that indicates the germs are setting up base camp - I grab a clove of garlic, smush up the end and sniff it several times on each nostril. I repeat this every hour for 2-3 times.
hard to prove a negative - but I'm an old lady - and I remain - knock on wood - flu free.
I can tell. Most patints coming in with the flu had their immunization.
My daughters almost died of a respiratory virus (RSV) when they were 6 weeks old. RSV is just a more severe cold virus, and they almost died of it. The doctors have always recommended them getting the flu shot, and this is the first year in 11 that one of them has ever had the flu.
I’ve had bad flu when I didn’t get the shot. I have asthma, and it would quickly turn into me getting pretty sick. I would have to be put on heavy duty steroids to get over it.
As of October, one of my daughters also has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder and a heart arrhythmia. So far, she hasn’t got the flu that my husband and I have had. I really don’t want her to get sick because illnesses lower seizure threshold.
I’m (hopefully) in the final stages of it right now.
My eyes have never watered so much in all my life.
Everyone thinks I’m upset and I’ve been crying.
I have fended off lots of the illnesses in my classroom.
I caught a cold (hope it is a cold anyway,)last week. Been taking Mucinex for about 5 days now. I think it is helping. At least it hasn't settled in my chest yet.
The flu shot hasn’t been a live virus for years and years. It’s not even a killed virus anymore. It’s antigenic particles - protein bits from the coats of killed viruses chosen from the three most likely of that year’s influenza viruses. The antigens teach your immune system to react. Two type A viruses and one type B influenza.
The only way the shot can make you weak is if your body decides to make too much of certain antibodies and doesn’t have enough resources to react to new infections. Not likely for healthy people.
The vaccine gurus pick next fall’s 3 strains in January and February. They’ve already ordered the eggs a few months ago (to grow the virus in).
The trouble comes when the a strain is so different that it doesn’t share the antigens chosen.
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