CCMS Medicine Fall 2017 - 27

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nfluenza (flu) is predictably unpredictable. While we can
anticipate its arrival each year, we never know exactly when
flu season is going to peak each season or how severe it will
be. Seasonal flu activity often begins as early as October or
November and can continue well into May. What we do know
for certain is that the flu can cause serious illness in people of ages
and that thousands of people will die. Last season's surveillance
data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) emphasizes the dangers quite clearly - 106 children died
from flu-related illness (most of them were unvaccinated).
Some people are at greater risk of serious complications
from flu, such as young children, pregnant women, adults aged
65 years and older, and people with certain chronic medical
conditions. However, the reality is that influenza can be
dangerous and deadly to almost anybody. That is why the CDC
recommends that everyone six months of age and older get a
flu vaccine each year.

Think a Healthy Adult Is Safe from Influenza? Think again. Eliza Anne Northrop Beale was a
healthy 49-year-old Pittsburgher who passed away
from influenza in 2009. She sought medical attention early in her illness, but even the best medical
treatments can sometimes fail to stop the progression of flu. Read more about her story at vaccinateyourfamily.org/victims-stories.

Even Healthy Children Can Die from Flu
A new CDC study published in Pediatrics is the first of its kind to
show that flu vaccination significantly reduced a child's risk of dying
from influenza. The study, which looked at data from four flu seasons
between 2010 and 2014, found that flu vaccination reduced the risk
of flu-associated death by half (51 percent) among children with
underlying high-risk medical conditions and by nearly two-thirds
(65 percent) among healthy children. An earlier report published
in Pediatrics revealed that children without medical conditions were
more likely to die before hospital admission, with 35 percent of
the deaths occurring either at home or on their way to the hospital,
which illustrates how quickly a child can succumb to this dangerous
illness. Most flu-associated deaths occurred among unvaccinated
children.
As a result, the CDC recommends that children six months
through eight years old who are getting vaccinated for the first time,
and those children who have only previously gotten one dose of flu
vaccine, should get two doses of flu vaccine this season. The first dose
should be given as soon as vaccine becomes available and the second
dose should be given at least four weeks after the first dose.
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http://www.chestercms.org http://vaccinateyourfamily.org http://www.eyourfamily.org/victims-stories

CCMS Medicine Fall 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CCMS Medicine Fall 2017