Busting Influenza Vaccine Myths.

Keep reading to bust some of the most common myths about the flu vaccination!

​Myth ONE
“Only sick and old people need to get the Flu Vaccine”
The Flu Vaccine is recommended for everyone over the age of 6 months.  This is because, while most patients recover fully from influenza, full recovery often takes 1 to 2 weeks. This is a long time off work and relying on others for care.  Influenza and influenza-related pneumonia can also cause death.  This is most common in High Risk patients such as people over 65 years old and those with significant other health conditions such as heart conditions or asthma, but can happen in any influenza infection.
 
Myth TWO
“I had the Flu Vaccine and it gave me the Flu”
This is not possible.  Basically, the Influenza Vaccines contains small parts of dead influenza virus.  You can not contract Influenza from this. 
There are two common reasons you may get an infection after the Influenza Vaccine.  The first is that you did not actually get Influenza, but instead got a cold that felt really bad.  The second is that that you got Influenza but it was a different strain to the ones in the vaccine.  Each year, specialists work really hard to predict what strains of Influenza are likely to cause the most illness and death in Australia and develop the appropriate vaccine.  The vaccines contain 3 or 4 of these.  There are many, many more strains in circulation. 
Getting the Influenza Vaccine not only helps protect you, but also prevents the spread of Influenza, especially to those people who are unable to have the vaccination.