It’s abundantly clear that winter is coming when you start seeing signs for flu vaccines clinics around town. So far, I’ve seen them advertised at the mall, the pharmacy and our local pediatrician’s office.
The flu vaccine is a topic we’ve written about before. But I think it’s always helpful to revisit any new information on medical decisions.
Wouldn’t you know, a new meta-analysis coming out of England reviewed the effectiveness of the flu vaccine in preventing seasonal flu infections.
The analysis included 31 studies conducted from 1967 to 2011. Research on both the trivalent inactivated vaccine, or TIV – the flu injection – and live attenuated influenza vaccine, or LAIV – the nasal spray flu vaccine – was included.
Pooling the results of these studies showed that the flu injection was effective at preventing seasonal flu in 59 percent of adults.
Data on the nasal spray flu vaccine was only available for children ages six months to seven years, but the studies showed that it was effective in 83 percent of the children studied. Clearly, more research is needed in this area to determine whether the nasal spray is also more effective in adults.
The analysis underscores the current thinking on the flu vaccine: while it’s not 100 percent effective, it does help prevent the flu in the majority of people who receive it. So it’s worth lining up for one of the flu vaccine clinics in your town.
Thanks for the great post. Great prevention techniques
In my experience, the best flu prevention is take lots of vitamin c and exercise regularly. The flu vaccine is just for a short period but prevention is for long term.
good post & Thanks