"I get the flu shot every year because it is the right thing to do. The odds of acquiring influenza in the community are high, and I have parents and patients that I need to protect. In order to protect them, I have to protect myself. The risk involved in getting the flu shot is minuscule, but the benefits are huge."
—Mary Ferguson-Paré, President
Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario
How well do you know the facts about influenza?
Take the following quiz to see.
It is impossible to get influenza from the flu shot.
True. The influenza vaccine is made from inactivated (dead) viruses, so it is impossible to contract influenza from the vaccine. While some people might think they got sick from the vaccine, they were either sick before they were immunized or may have contracted influenza in the two-week period following immunization, before their systems had the chance to create the antibodies to protect them.
Children are at serious risk for influenza-related complications.
True. A child under the age of two has the same chance of being hospitalized with flu-related complications as an adult over the age of 65. The highest rate of infection is among children. As many as one in three children will contract influenza contrasted with one in ten adults. While the vaccine is recommended for children over the age of six months, to avoid serious illness and even death, younger babies should be exposed to only those who have been vaccinated.
Healthy adults are at risk for influenza-related complications.
True. Thousands of previously healthy adults will visit the hospital with pneumonia or other influenza-related complications in Canada this year alone. Although the elderly account for 90 percent of influenza-related deaths, otherwise healthy adults and children die every year from this highly preventable virus.
"I get the flu shot not only to protect others, but also because I can't afford to be sick in the winter. With emergency rooms overrun with flu patients every year, medical professionals need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem."
—Dr. David Salisbur
Medical Officer of Health
Ottawa Public Health
You can be sick with influenza and not know it.
True. Adults can be contagious beginning the day before the onset of symptoms and up to seven days afterward. Even if you don’t get sick, without the vaccine, you may be putting others—your family, colleagues and patients—at risk unknowingly. One British study showed that of the health-care workers tested, 23 percent had been exposed to influenza and 59 percent of that cohort didn’t even realize it. This means you can spread the contagion unknowingly, especially if you are asymptomatic or subclinically ill.
If I get sick, I can take an antiviral medication.
True. Antiviral medications are available, but they are effective only when administered within the first 24–48 hours of infection, long before many people even know they are sick. Antivirals must also be used with caution as some strains of influenza may become antiviral resistant, which could cause serious problems in the event of a pandemic.
