Anyone who wants to reduce their chances of getting the flu should get the seasonal vaccine. (And really, who wants to encourage fevers, chills, runny nose, body aches, and fatigue?)

If you’re a health care worker and you come in contact with patients in any way, you should get the vaccine not only to protect yourself, but to protect your patients, too -- especially those with weakened immune systems. You can transmit flu to someone else for 24 hours before you even know you’re sick!

According to public health officials, people who should make sure to get the seasonal flu vaccine are:

1. Children aged 6 months up to their 19th birthday
2. Pregnant women
3. People 50 years of age and older
4. People of any age with certain medical conditions (such as asthma, lung disease, heart disease, diabetes, and diseases or treatments that affect the immune system) that make them more likely to develop complications from the flu.
5. People who live in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities
6. People who live with or care for those at high risk for complications from flu, including:

• Health care workers
• Household contacts of persons at high risk for complications from the flu
• Household contacts and out of home caregivers of children less than 6 months of age (these children are too young to be vaccinated)

But even if you don’t fall into one of these groups, consider getting a seasonal flu vaccine!

In fact, the only people who should NOT get a seasonal flu vaccine are those who are under six months old, who currently have a fever of 101.5° or more, who have an allergy to eggs/egg products or had a reaction to a prior flu vaccine, who have been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome in the past or who are currently receiving chemotherapy.

There are a few other groups that can receive the injected flu vaccine but should not receive the nasal vaccine (FluMist) - see our general vaccine page for a list.

The seasonal flu vaccine is not expected to protect against the novel H1N1 pandemic flu, also commonly called swine flu.

The vaccine against H1N1 is being produced now, and is expected to be available this fall. However, the run-of-the-mill seasonal flu can be inconvienent at best and deadly at worst. Every year, on average, 5 to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu, more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu-related complications and 36,000 people die from flu-related causes. So it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Flu vaccination provides protection that will last for the whole season. Vaccination can begin as soon as the vaccine is available. Studies do not show a benefit of receiving more than one dose of vaccine during a flu season, even among elderly persons with weakened immune systems.  In addition, there is a lack of evidence for late season outbreaks among vaccinated persons that can be attributed to waning immunity. 

How well the flu vaccine works depends on how well the match is between the influenza (flu) vaccine and the types of flu viruses that are circulating that year. Scientists try to predict what strains of flu viruses are most likely to spread and cause illness each year to put into the vaccine. In years when the vaccine strains and the virus strains are well-matched, the vaccine can reduce the chances of getting the flu by 70 to 90 percent in healthy adults. The vaccine may be somewhat less effective in elderly persons and very young children, but vaccination can still prevent serious complications from the flu.

No. There are two options for vaccination.

• The "flu shot"— an inactivated vaccine containing killed virus that is given with a needle, usually in the arm. The flu shot is approved for use in people older than 6 months, including healthy people and people with chronic medical conditions.

• The nasal-spray flu vaccine — a vaccine made with live, weakened flu viruses that do not cause the flu (sometimes called LAIV for “live attenuated influenza vaccine” or FluMist®). LAIV (FluMist®) is approved for use in healthy people 2-49 years of age who are not pregnant.

For more information on these two options, visit our general vaccine page.

No, the flu shot cannot cause flu illness. The three influenza viruses contained in the flu vaccine are each inactivated, which means they cannot cause infection. Flu vaccine manufacturers kill the viruses used in the vaccine during the process of making vaccine, and batches of flu vaccine are tested to make sure they are safe.

In randomized, blinded studies, where some people got flu shots and others got placebo (“dummy” shots), the only differences in symptoms was increased soreness in the arm and redness at the injection site among people who got the flu shot. There were no differences in terms of body aches, fever, cough, runny nose or sore throat.

Unlike the flu shot that’s given via a needle, the nasal spray flu vaccine does contain live viruses. However, the viruses are weakened and cannot cause flu illness. The weakened viruses are cold-adapted, which means they are designed to only cause infection at the cooler temperatures found within the nose – which is how the weakened viruses prompt the body to mount an immune response that will then protect you if you’re exposed to the live virus. The weakened vaccine viruses cannot infect the lungs or other areas where warmer temperatures exist.

To learn about vaccination options for U-M patients and members of our local community, visit our Flu shots page. Depending on insurance coverage, the vaccine may be free or inexpensive.

Because flu vaccination is important for health care workers, to avoid infecting vulnerable patients, free seasonal flu shots are available to UMHS employees. See our Web site for more information about when and where to get a vaccine. The vaccine is free to all UMHS faculty and staff, medical/nursing students, and UMHS volunteers.

The H1N1 vaccine currently is not available but should begin to be available in late October.  

No. H1N1 influenza vaccine will be available as both a shot and a nasal spray. Neither is an experimental vaccine.

The H1N1 influenza vaccines are being made with the same methods and facilities that are used annually to produce seasonal influenza vaccine. Every year, new strains of flu are targeted by the seasonal flu vaccine. This year, the H1N1 strain is being targeted in just the same way.

The vaccines are undergoing additional clinical trials to determine the size of the dose and the number of doses that will be needed for protection.

Additional safety monitoring will be conducted throughout the flu season after H1N1 vaccination begins, as precaution. But health officials stress that the H1N1 vaccine is expected to be as safe as the seasonal vaccines that have been given hundreds of millions of times. 

Health officials expect the H1N1 vaccine to be just as safe as the seasonal flu vaccines that have been given to Americans hundreds of millions of times. The H1N1 vaccine is being produced in the same way as these "regular" flu vaccines. The only difference is the particular strain of flu that is being used.

Additional safety monitoring will be conducted throughout the flu season after H1N1 vaccination begins, as a precaution. This will go above and beyond the safety monitoring that is normally performed for flu vaccine.

Every vaccine has potential side effects, but flu vaccine side effects are typically mild. Learn more about them here.

More information on H1N1 vaccine safety for pregnant women is available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here.

Data from early 2009 H1N1 influenza cases in the United States show that pregnant women account for a disproportionate number of deaths, making them a high-priority group for vaccination. 

Current studies indicate that the risk of infection, hospitalization, and death from the H1N1 influenza virus among persons age 65 years and older is less than is the risk for younger age groups.

Studies suggest that there is some degree of preexisting immunity to the 2009 H1N1 strains, especially among adults older than age 60 years. One possible explanation is that some adults in this age group have had previous exposure, either through infection or vaccination, to an influenza A (H1N1) virus.

People age 65 years and older are included as a priority group if they live with or care for infants younger than age 6 months or are a healthcare or emergency services provider.

Once public health authorities at the local level determine that the H1N1 influenza vaccine demand for the five target groups has been met, providers will be notified that they can administer the vaccine to healthy people ages 25 through 64 years. Once demand for H1N1 influenza vaccine among younger age groups is met, vaccination should be expanded to all people age 65 and older.

If a patient is in a risk group to receive H1N1 influenza vaccine, they should be vaccinated. Studies suggest that vaccination with season influenza vaccine will not provide protection against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus.

You can in most cases. See the points below.

•  A person can receive both of the needle-based vaccines (the inactivated seasonal flu vaccine and the inactivated H1N1 influenza vaccine) at the same visit, using separate syringes and sites, or at any time before or after each other.
• A person can receive the needle-based inactivated seasonal and live nasal-spray H1N1 influenza vaccines together or at any time before or after each other.
• A person can receive the live nasal spray-based seasonal vaccine and the needle-based inactivated H1N1 influenza vaccine together or at any time before or after each other.
• However, a person should NOT receive the two different nasal spray-based vaccines at the same visit because of concerns about competition between the two vaccine viruses. If a person wants to receive both vaccines via nasal spray, he or she should wait four weeks between the seasonal vaccine and a dose of H1N1 vaccine.

The elbow cough is in vogue this year. If a tissue is not handy, cough or sneeze into your arm or elbow – not your hands where you could easily spread germs. Ideally, use a tissue for sneezes, coughing or blowing and then throw it out.

Don’t come to work sick. Try to make emergency back up plans for working from home.

Wash your hands frequently and don’t touch your eyes, nose and mouth. Hum “The Victors” as you scrub your hands with soap and water and you’ll be in good shape.

Use alcohol-based hand sanitizers.

Do all the right things: eat a balanced diet, get regular exercise, plenty of sleep and try to avoid stress.