Keep your family healthy by getting annual flu shots for everyone

BY CONNIE WIRTA

One simple way to keep your family healthy is to make sure everyone — from babies to grandparents — gets an annual flu vaccination. Your family’s youngest and oldest members have the greatest risk of complications from the flu.

“Getting a vaccination can protect you from getting the flu or, if you get it, having a less severe case,” explains Dr. Lori DeFrance, a pediatrician at the Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic. “That means less time missed from work and school, fewer doctor visits and less risk of health complications.”

Get your flu vaccinations as soon as they are available in September and October, before the flu starts to spread, Dr. DeFrance recommends. The pediatrician stresses that the flu vaccine has been proven both safe and effective.

“You can’t get the flu from a flu shot because it is an inactivated virus,” she says.

“You may get side effects, like a fever or body aches.”

An annual flu shot is recommended for everyone older than 6 months. That includes pregnant women and nursing women who pass some protection on to their babies.

When getting the flu vaccine for the first time, children ages 6 months to 8 years old need to get two doses at least four weeks apart. “This optimizes the result and boosts their immune system,” explains Dr. DeFrance.

This year, the vaccine is available as a shot and as a reformulated nasal mist. Like the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. DeFrance recommends children receive the injectable form since it has been shown to be more consistently effective. However, the nasal mist is a better choice than no vaccine at all, the pediatrician says. She notes the nasal mist is not recommended for any child under age 2 or children with chronic medical conditions like asthma.

Protecting your family also helps protect your community, especially those who cannot get the flu vaccine due to underlying health conditions, Dr. DeFrance points out. Since the flu vaccine cannot be given to infants under the age of 6 months, their families and caregivers need to be vaccinated to protect them, she says.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently reported 171 children died from flu-related causes during the last flu season.

Excluding pandemics, that ties the record set in the 2012-13 flu season. About 80 percent of the children were not vaccinated, the CDC says, and about half had a medical condition that placed them at high risk of developing serious flu complications.

Some people are more vulnerable to serious flu-related complications, including children younger than age 5 and especially those younger than 2 as well as any children with certain longterm health problems, such as asthma or other lung disorders, heart disease, or a neurologic or neurodevelopmental disorder, explains Dr. DeFrance. People over age 65 also have a higher risk of complications and even death.

While flu vaccine can vary in how well it works each season, a CDC study published in Pediatrics in 2017 showed flu vaccination can save children’s lives. The study of four flu seasons between 2010 and 2014 found that vaccination reduced the risk of fluassociated death by 51 percent among children with underlying high-risk medical conditions and by 65 percent among otherwise healthy children. —

MDT

Connie Wirta is an editor for Essentia Health marketing. She wrote this for Moms & Dads Today.

Get A Flu Vaccine

To help busy families get their flu vaccinations, Essentia Health offers several options.

Flu vaccines are available during any regular appointment with your family medicine physician or pediatrician. You also can walk-in without an appointment from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays in the Pediatrics Department on the third floor of the Duluth Clinic’s First Street Building. Appointments with a pediatrician are also available at Essentia’s Hermantown Clinic from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Saturday.

These Twin Ports clinics will offer walk-in flu booths from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Oct. 1-5 and Oct. 8-12:

• Lakeside Clinic, 4621 E. Superior St., Duluth

• West Duluth Clinic, 4212 Grand Ave., Duluth

• Hermantown Clinic, 4855 W. Arrowhead Road, Hermantown

• Superior Clinic, 3500 Tower Ave., Superior These Urgent Care Clinics will offer flu booths during these hours on Oct. 1-14:

• West Duluth Urgent Care, 4212 Grand Ave., Duluth: 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily

• Third Street Urgent Care, 400 E. First St., Duluth: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

• Hermantown Urgent Care, 4855 W. Arrowhead Road, Hermantown: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Superior Convenient Care, 2202 E. Second St., Suite 377, Superior: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday; 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The Duluth Clinic’s First Street Building at 420 E. First St. has walk-in flu booths available from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 15-19, Oct. 22-26 and Oct. 29 to Nov. 2.