By Shannon Barry
The holiday season is upon us, and with it comes the frantic frenzy of shopping for gifts, baking lavish meals, congregating with loved ones – and avoiding the flu while doing so.
Consumers spent an estimated $20 billion on Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – in anticipation of Christmas, but many people are making excuses to avoid getting an inexpensive, yearly flu vaccination, according to Phyllis Cascade, a registered nurse who administers flu shots in Los Altos for Sutter VNA & Hospice, a non-profit community-based agency that provides in-home clinical care in communities throughout Northern California.
Every year, 5 percent to 20 percent of people in the United States contract the flu, more than 200,000 are hospitalized for flu complications and 36,000 die from the infection, Cascade said.
Flu symptoms include high fever, which indicates an infection (above 101 degrees); headache; exhaustion, even after a healthy amount of sleep; dry coughing; sore throat; runny or stuffy nose; and muscle aches, usually throughout the whole body. Complications that can result from the flu include bacterial pneumonia, ear infections, sinus infections and dehydration.
If you want to keep your energy up and the flu virus in your community down, Cascade suggested checking with your doctor. Flu clinics are operating through December, and flu season can continue through the spring, so it’s important to get vaccinated, she said.
This year approximately 132 million vaccines were manufactured, so there is no shortage of supplies like last year, said Art Woo, program director for infusion and pharmacy services for Sutter VNA & Hospice.
It takes two weeks for the immunity to kick in, and it is important to get the shot every year because the medical world monitors viruses and adjusts the vaccine, Woo said. Last year’s vaccines won’t protect against this year’s flu.
A Sutter flu-shot clinic is scheduled 3-7 p.m. Dec. 12 at Elephant Pharm, 4470 El Camino Real, Los Altos. Donations from the clinic benefit the Sutter Foundation, which directs funds to hospice care.
For more information, visit www.suttervna.org.
