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Fever, body hurting, headache, feeling kinda yuck like you want to throw up, having a hard time getting out of bed, sore throat, if any of these sounds familiar, that’s because all of these symptoms are associated with the flu. Sometimes these symptoms make it hard to tell whether you have a cold or the flu, (Flu or Cold!) However the Flu season is upon us and if you haven’t gotten your flu shot yet, you may want to reconsider skipping it.
What you need to know!
Every year about 5-10% of adult and 20-30% of children are expected to have the flu worldwide. In spite of this, the debate about whether or not to get the flu vaccine comes up every year as soon as the first few flu victims show up in urgent care centers and doctor’s offices everywhere. So what do pregnant women and moms need to know:
- The flu, or influenza, is an acute viral infection that occurs worldwide. It is caused by three main strains of the influenza virus: A, B, C. Type A is further classified in subtype such as H3N2 or H1N1, which circulates among humans. Since type C circulates much less, flu vaccines will generally contain a combination of the most common strains of type A and type B influenza virus.
- The flu can affect anyone however those at highest for complications include; children under the age of 2, pregnant women, elderly people and those with a weakened immune system. These individuals are at highest risk for being hospitalized due to complications from having the flu such as pneumonia. and even death.
- The flu virus spreads easily through casual contact and hand to hand transmission so it is important to practice good hand washing technique and reinforce hand washing with children during flu season.
- Best way to avoid getting the flu: get vaccinated! I know, we all know someone who receive the flu vaccine and got the flu. However studies have shown that the flu vaccine does not transmit the flu. So how do we explain those folks who got sick after getting vaccinated:
- They were already exposed and would have developed flu symptoms regardless
- It takes up to two week to develop immunity after receiving the vaccine so these individuals may have been exposed to the flu during those two weeks and thus got sick before they could become immune
- They may have been exposed to a different strain of the flu virus from the strain used to make the vaccine.
- The CDC, the WHO and ACOG recommend all pregnant women get vaccinated. Pregnant women are more vulnerable to flu virus and are at increased risks of complications and ending up hospitalized. Studies show that women who are vaccinated during pregnancy are less likely to be hospitalized. Another benefit of getting vaccinated in pregnancy is that the protection transfers to their babies. Babies whose moms were vaccinated during pregnancy were less likely to get sick than those whose mothers did not get vaccinated.
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- Finally even if you do get the flu after being vaccinated, as it can happen, studies show that you will experience a milder form of the flu than you might have.
The post Pregnant During Flu Season: What You Need To Know! appeared first on Healthy Mommy Happy Baby.
