So its flu season, and being an Ontario resident I get a free flu shot. However being of relative good health, young and minimal contact with children/old people (ever so often I see them at Tim Horton’s taking forever to order) I have never actually went and got a shot. I also don’t really see the point in inoculating for what is a fairly benign disease. Truth be told I am somewhat against giving flu shots away as I think it may have something to do with the explosion of viral resistant medicines. Driving home from work one day, listening to the radio, I heard a quick little story on the all news radio station here about a study recently done on the effectiveness of said flu shot. This report said 19% of people who get the flu shot get the flu, while 23% of people who don’t get the shot get the flu. I would like to know if this true.
You see my gf is a med student, and last weekend while out with her fellow med student friends the discussion about the flu shot came up. Out came this study (almost all of the drs to be were in favour of the flu shot), however no one believed me, dismissing me with a comment generally of ‘oh I don’t think so’ (what I do has nothing to do with medicine so you know…). Any help in finding this study?
Of the 1,000 people who got the vaccine before November 1, 149 went on to develop influenza-like illness (14.9 percent). Of the 402 people who did not get the vaccine, 68 got an influenza-like illness (16.9 percent), the study said.
It may’ve been that study which was done by the CDC. However it depends on whether the major strain that is making everyone sick is a part of the vaccine. If the major strain is vaccinated against the vaccine should work. If it isn’t, then it isn’t going to be much better than placebo. Another study found the vaccine isn’t too effective. But I don’t know if multiple independent studies have found the same thing or if this study is a fluke. http://www.medicalconsumers.org/pages/FluVaccineisRarelyEffective.html
It is, of course, too early to see whether the CDC 2004-05 flu predictions are more accurate, but for the first time a systematic assessment has been conducted of all flu vaccine trials worldwide. The review was conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration* and Dr. Jefferson was one of the four authors. The Cochrane reviewers wanted to answer the question of how effective flu vaccines are for healthy people under the age of 60 years. They also wanted to see whether there were any adverse effects.
They found 25 clinical trials in which healthy people between the ages of 14 and 60 years had been randomly assigned to have a flu vaccine or a placebo (inactive) vaccine. All the trials had been published in medical journals between 1969 and 2002. Altogether they involved 59,566 participants. Here is the Cochrane Review conclusion: Influenza vaccines are effective in reducing influenza A and B, but they do not work against the overwhelming majority of influenza-like illnesses.
When the Cochrane reviewers pooled the results of all 25 trials, they found that only 6% fewer vaccinated people got the flu, compared to the unvaccinated people. The vaccine formulations, which differed each year, were based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization or single governments (the 25 trials took place in eight different countries). No adverse reactions to the vaccines were reported.
Your numbers are close, but there’s a reason for it.
So those people got a flu that they weren’t vaccinated for!
In certain populations flu can be lethal, I think it was the #1 killer disease of the last century.
Why would getting an inactivated vaccine (containing killed virus) lead to resistance to anti-virals in a virus?
I’ll refer you to the CDC for most of your question, but I just wanted to say that this makes no sense at all. I don’t know what a “viral resistant medicine” is. If you’re saying it contribtes to viruses that are resistant to anti-viral drugs, well, that’s just wrong.
You’re probably thinking it’s analogous to antibiotic resistance in bacteria, but it’s not the same thing at all. To breed resistance to a drug, you need to expose the microbe to that drug. The drug would then kill of most of the microbes, leaving behind just the resistant individuals. That’s not what happens with a vaccine. Firstly, the vaccine prevents the virus from ever getting a foothold in the body. Widespread vaccine use could, theoretically, provide selective pressure for mutations that change the virus into a new strain that’s not prevented by the vaccine, but since we get new strains constantly anyway, that’s not a big deal. Secondly, no one treats the flu with antiviral drugs (except possibly in extreme, life-threatening cases - a doc would have to confirm that) because (A) we don’t really have a lot of very good antivirals and (B) the flu typically isn’t serious enough to warrant that kind of treatment. Flu medicines out there only treat the symptoms. They don’t attack the virus itself.
I also think that if you refer to the Flu as a fairly benign disease you probably never had the flu. Most of what the people attribute to the flu is one of a few cold viruses.
Flu is a pretty bad illness. Most of the today’s strains aren’t very likely to kill a healthy adult, but it’s still very serious. Most flu strains will most likely make you contemplate suicide as viable treatment option at least once during their course.
Well ok, I am sure that it is very deadly in poor countries where they have limitied clean drinking water, poor nutrition and other such unhealthy things. In rich countries not facing the same initial hardships I would question how many people actually die from the flu. I would be its not even close to the number of people who die from something such as AIDS, Cancer or diabetes. Particularly if you take out the 1918 flu epidemic.
People have different breaking points. Some people get extremely whiny at a hangnail as well. How is it a very serious illness? Because you have a fever? You throw up a little? Besides, according to the links generously provided by Wesley Clark The Cochrane review, which was published this year, produced these additional findings: The influenza vaccine did not reduce the number of working days lost, nor did it reduce flu-related complications, deaths or hospitalizations. So it doesn’t even help with the number of days people call in sick!
I don’t know, maybe I’m more susceptible, maybe I didn’t have the flu, however, the two times I suspect I had the flu in my life I required assistance to get up and go to the restroom for at least 3-4 days, had trouble breathing and constantly felt like I was being fried or frozen. One time, it was around new years '99 I believe, I attempted to go to the restroom, fell down on the way back and somehow decided, in my fevered delusion, that crawling back to bed would be the best option.
Now I’m an otherwise healthy young male, and I had a case of, according to my doctor, bad pneumonia that were not nearly severe as my flus.
When I was around 10 years old I had a case of atypical trigeminal neuralgia that lasted for a couple of months. Between that and the flu, I’d say it’s a toss up what’s worse. But honestly, I’d rather have my teeth pulled with no anesthetic than go through the kind of flu I’ve been through.
Maybe you’re thinking of what people call the "stomach flu ", which is basically an infection of the stomach or intestines by a virus or bacteria. You puke or have diarrhea, maybe a fever, for a few days. Some strains can be worse, but what most people call “the flu” is usually a day of puking.
Influenza, the real flu, can be very serious, especially in the very old or young. It has you in bed with shivers and muscle pain for days, a high fever, and a headache. In weaker people it can progress to pneumonia.
I hate that people call any old cold or illness a “flu”. Get it straight!
Ok, maybe I have never had the flu. Maybe it is a very horrible experience. I will admit to not really having much of an idea of what the difference is between ‘stomach flu’ and ‘influenza’. I do know that what most people call the flu is really just a cold. I understand that it can make you bedridden for a few days with fluid coming out of every orfice on your body. However, the only way I see this thread continuing is in more of a GD, something along the lines of: Is the flu shot a good way for governments to be spending their limited health dollars on? because frankly regardless of how terrible the flu is, I still don’t see the flu shot as a necessary or even reliable method of lessening a burden on the health care system. Maybe I will start a thread in GD.
I do thank you all for clearing up some of my misconceptions regarding the flu, consider a little bit of ignorance wiped out of this world.
