According to epidemiologists, vaccination helps to survive autumn and winter, almost without getting sick. Is it so? We will discuss with specialists.
A sure sign of the autumn: the people who have not yet recovered after the holidays, languidly discussing the eternal in the smoking-houses, from year to year until the end and the unresolved question: is it worth to be vaccinated against the flu? Terrible calls for vaccination come from all sides. But doubts remain ...
Perhaps the main reason to doubt - many do not particularly believe that the vaccine will protect against the flu . They say, he did the inoculation, but he still fell ill! In response, doctors quote data from different studies - for example, the Royal Society of General Practitioners of the British Department of Health: only half the cases the initial diagnosis of "influenza" is confirmed laboratory - that is, almost in time what we consider to be a flu, , - these are different types of ARI, also unpleasant, but much less dangerous for humans.
Another, no less "valid" reason to avoid vaccinations is we are more afraid of complications from vaccines than of the flu itself. Either the person perceives the inoculation as the same flu, but only in a lighter form.
As doctors recognize, when the first-generation vaccines containing live virus appeared, it was so. But today, influenza vaccines are some synthetic compounds that can not cause disease in principle.
Who should not?
Influenza vaccines have practically no contraindications. But to abandon them (at least for a while) is worth it for those who:
- there were allergic reactions to previous vaccinations;
- there is an allergy to the components of the vaccine (for example, to a protein of chicken eggs);
- with the aggravation of allergic or chronic diseases (should be at least two weeks after the outbreak);
- Acute illness with temperature. Also should pass at least two weeks after recovery, before putting the vaccine.
And who is recommended
* For working people, who are "unprofitable";
* students and all those who spend a lot of time in closed collectives;
* Children from 6 months (not to pick up the virus in kindergarten and school);
* People over 60 years of age (with age, immunity decreases);
* People with chronic physical illnesses, such as angina pectoris, diabetes mellitus, kidney failure, etc. (influenza exacerbates all illnesses);
* people who have a high risk of getting influenza (health workers, employees of educational institutions, public transport drivers, trade workers, social workers, police, military personnel) by profession.
PURPORT OF THE DOCTOR
Complications are unpredictable
Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor, Academician, WHO expert Vladimir TATOCHENKO:
- It's hard to argue with people who are convinced of the uselessness of vaccinations. But I want to say that the flu is a disease that can cause severe complications in people of any age, regardless of health status. In addition, it often leads to death.
Despite the claims that the vaccine does not help, the data says that every year the incidence of flu is decreasing. Therefore, vaccination is recommended to everyone, starting from children older than 6 months of age. Modern flu vaccines do not contain live viruses and are therefore practically safe.