MIAMI VALLEY, Ohio (WKEF) — You can be young, healthy and rarely get sick, but doctors say that does not mean the flu cannot knock you off your feet.<\/p>\n
As the weather turns colder and people spend more time indoors, doctors with Greene County Public Health are urging everyone to think about getting vaccinated this fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe virus doesn’t care who it affects; it’s that it is doing its job of attaching to our mucosal cells and the lining of our upper airway, and it’ll spread down and sometimes get deep in the lungs, and that can cause pneumonia,\u201d said Dr. Don Brannen, an epidemiologist with Greene County Public Health.<\/p>\n
The CDC recommends September and October as the prime time to get a flu shot, as flu activity typically spikes in November. In the Miami Valley, he said a moderately severe spike is expected.<\/p>\n
Dr. Brannen also emphasized everyday prevention steps, including handwashing and keeping distance from people who are sick.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the best ways to protect yourself are stuff that you teach your kids, you know, wash your hands after you take something dirty, wash your hands before you eat. If somebody is sick and sneezing, stay six feet away from them. If you’re sick, protect others by wearing a mask when you’re out,\u201d Brannen said.<\/p>\n
He said the Miami Valley has already seen a spike in flu cases just last week.<\/p>\n
For children who need two doses, parents are encouraged to consider getting vaccines as soon as possible so the second dose can be completed by the end of October. Health officials also note it takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to build.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Dr. Brannen said those who should be thinking about the shot now rather than later are adults 65 and older and people living with weaker immune systems<\/p>\n
Dr. Brannen said one common misconception is that the flu shot causes the flu.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always say the vaccine causes the flu. It doesn’t. You may have some soreness at the site. You may have a little bit of fever because you’re producing the antibodies. The vaccine is going to give you the ability to make the back the antibodies to protect you naturally against the virus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also explained that just because you’ve had the flu before does not mean you’re not at risk of contracting it again. <\/p>\n
“Even if you’ve had the virus, flu kind of adapts every year,” he said. “Right now, the same strains that we’ve seen in past years are a little bit different now. So it’s good to stay up to date on your flu vaccine because you have the most efficacious match to the current circulating viruses. <\/p>\n
He said that if you fall sick with the flu before you are able to get vaccinated, wait about a week to get the vaccine. <\/p>\n
Doctors say understanding your risk and taking preventive steps before you get sick can make a difference during flu season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI VALLEY, Ohio (WKEF) — You can be young, healthy and rarely get sick, but doctors say that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-782798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}