Pandemic Flu
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Your Health Is in Your Hands - How to care for yourself and others with influenza
Influenza (flu)
If you have the flu, your work is through.
Sick workers get other workers sick.
So before you arrive with the stuffy head, make sure you don't have symptoms that should keep you in bed. Share ideas - not viruses - with your co-workers. Keep sick at home.
Video courtesy of www.5thguy.com
Influenza (flu) is a serious disease of the nose, throat, and lungs. It can make you sick for a week or longer with coughing, fever, aching, and more. And it can lead to pneumonia.
Who is at high risk of flu complications?
- People who are 50 years old or older. Even if you are active and in good health, you have a higher risk of complications if you get the flu. Each year about 36,000 people in the U.S. die because of the flu.
- People with chronic (ongoing) or long-term health problems. You may look and feel healthy, but if you have a condition like diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, or asthma, you are more likely to have complications from the flu. If your immune system is weakened by long-term problems like cancer or HIV/AIDS, you need a flu shot (the flu shot is safe for people with weak immune systems).
- Women who are pregnant during flu season (typically November through March). Pregnant women are at risk of complications and hospitalization if they get the flu. The influenza vaccine is safe for pregnant women and their babies. Protect yourself and your baby by getting vaccinated.
- Children under 5 years old. Children under 5 years old have a high risk of emergency room visits and hospitalizations due to flu.
Why get vaccinated?
Influenza ("flu") is a contagious disease!
It is caused by the influenza virus, which spreads from infected persons to the nose or throat of others. Other illnesses can have the same symptoms and are often mistaken for influenza. But only an illness caused by the influenza virus is really influenza.
Anyone can get influenza, but rates of infection are highest among children. For most people, it lasts only a few days. It can cause:
- fever
- sore throat
- chills
- fatigue
- cough
- headache
- muscle aches
Some people get much sicker. Influenza can lead to pneumonia and can be dangerous for people with heart or breathing conditions. It can cause high fever and seizures in children. On average, 226,000 people are hospitalized every year because of influenza and 36,000 die - mostly elderly.
Influenza vaccine can prevent influenza.
When should I get the influenza vaccine?
View the SDHD Calendar of Events page for district flu vaccine clinics already scheduled.
Plan to get influenza vaccine in October or November if you can. But getting vaccinated in December, or even later, will still be beneficial in most years. You can get the vaccine as soon as it is available, and for as long as illness is occurring. Influenza illness can occur any time from November through May. Most cases usually occur in January or February.
Most people need one dose of influenza vaccine each year. Children younger than 9 years of age getting influenza vaccine for the first time should get 2 doses. For inactivated vaccine, these doses should be given at least 4 weeks apart.
Influenza vaccine may be given at the same time as other vaccines, including pneumococcal vaccine.
Covering Coughs
Put coughs where they belong-in a tissue, or your arm.
Filling your palm with phlegm is a mistake. Bare hands make bad tissues. You use them to shake hands, open doors and do many other things that can spread germs.
Video courtesy of www.5thguy.com
