Flu activity in Arizona is at a “sporadic” level, and state and federal officials say now is the time to get a flu shot.
Getting vaccinated now will provide protection for the entire flu season. It takes two weeks for the vaccine to be fully effective.
Six things Pima County residents need to know about the flu, which is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza virus:
A flu shot is recommended for everyone 6 months of age and older.
“The flu vaccine is really the best protection we have against influenza ... and now is the best time to be vaccinated if you haven’t. I got mine,” said Dr. Cara Christ, who is director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
Christ added that anyone with an allergy or medical contraindication should talk to their physician before getting immunized.
Getting immunized is not merely for self protection, Christ said.
Since infants younger than 6 months are not able to be vaccinated, they are particularly vulnerable. In the 2014-15 flu season, there were 146 pediatric flu deaths in the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, including one in Pima County.
Other vulnerable groups are people over the age of 65 and people with compromised immune systems.
Hospitals are increasingly requiring their employees to get flu shots, and the federal government is encouraging all health-care workers to get vaccinated.
This year’s vaccine is looking to be an effective match for the strains in circulation.
“They think it’s going to be a lot more effective than last year when it turned out to be not the best match,” Christ said.
You can’t get the flu from the flu vaccine.
Flu vaccines are most often made either with flu vaccine viruses that have been inactivated and are therefore not infectious, or with no flu vaccine viruses at all, the CDC says. While the nasal spray flu vaccine does contain live viruses they are weakened and therefore cannot cause flu illness, federal officials say.
The flu virus is already circulating.
“It is in Arizona,” Christ said. “We only get those reports that have had a confirmed lab test, so we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Not everybody goes to the doctor for flu.”
Christ said it’s tough to predict the course of any particular flu season — influenza is predictably unpredictable, she said.
“If a new strain is introduced, that could change the entire flu season and that could come at any time, which is why we are always encouraging people to make sure they are vaccinated against flu,” she said.
Hand-washing, staying home when you are sick and making sure you sneeze into your arm or a tissue (and throw it away) are also precautions people should be taking, she said.
The flu will make you more sick than a head cold.
“You are going to get a fever, extreme tiredness, a sore throat, muscle aches,” Christ said. “Most people describe getting the flu as getting hit by a bus. You are really sick.”
With a cold you might have some congestion, a runny nose, stuffiness, and maybe a bit of a sore throat, but generally not a fever, she said.
There’s a right and wrong way to sanitize one’s hands.
“You want to get into all the nooks and crannies of your hands. You want that hand sanitizer to have contact with any place germs could possibly be hiding,” said Nina Mazzola, manager of the infection control department at Tucson Medical Center.
TMC is awaiting word whether they were successful last week in making the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest hand sanitizing relay. They got 664 people to do the World Health Organization’s eight steps of good hand hygiene.
In a pinch, hand sanitizer is better than doing nothing. But don’t rely on it, particularly if your hands are visibly dirtied, she added. Soap and water is the best way to protect skin and clean dirt.
“The hand sanitizer is going to have to work that much harder to get through the dirt and the grime to kill the bacteria,” Mazzola said.
“It’s an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, so if you are relying on that over time, then it can damage your skin. And skin really is our best protector against germs.”
Try singing a song to make sure you are washing long enough. Mazzola suggests, “Happy Birthday,” “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” or “ABC.”
