Senior Living

Flu Season is Here: Are You Ready?

When flu season strikes, it often hits hard and fast. The symptoms can knock a person down, forcing them to spend a week in bed or take a trip to the hospital. Seniors ages 65 and older have a higher risk of severe flu complications.

Here are five important things you should know about the flu and the flu vaccine this fall.

What are the symptoms?

If you feel like you’ve been hit by a truck, you might have the flu. Influenza is a respiratory virus spread mainly through coughing and sneezing and causes a fever, cough and sore throat. It can also cause severe tiredness and headaches and a general achy feeling.

Who should get the flu vaccine?

Everyone over the age of 6 months should get the flu vaccine. Senior citizens are among those most at risk of severe illness. Along with the flu vaccine, seniors are advised to get the pneumococcal vaccine, which protects against pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream infections. Pneumococcal pneumonia is a serious flu related complication that can cause death. Does the flu vaccine work, and is it safe?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration monitor the flu vaccine. It is made from a dead virus and cannot give a person the flu. Several viruses cause the flu, and the vaccine cannot always keep up with the flu that is circulating in a particular year. Studies show the vaccine reduces the risk of flu illness by 40 to 60 percent when the vaccine is matched well with the viruses circulating that year.

When should you get the shot?

Doctors recommend getting the flu shot in early fall. A senior’s immunity to disease weakens over time, and this increases the risk of contracting flu and pneumonia. For seniors, this can be life-threatening. That is why it is important for people age 65 and older to get a flu vaccine.

What if I get sick?

It is possible to get the flu even with vaccination, though the risk of severe infection is lower. Treatment for the flu is most effective if given within the first two days of illness.

Influenza season is here! A little bit of prevention can go a long way. Along with preventative hygiene measures like hand-washing, and a flu vaccine is the best protection against the virus.