Interior Health is urging people go out and get immunized as flu season is in full swing.
Dr. Andy Delli Pizzi says that vaccines are the most guaranteed form of safety against the flu and influenza, but also greatly lowers the risks or spreading influenza to your family and within the community. Delli Pizzi cautions that influenza illnesses can affect a lot of people in the population in different ways. Some symptoms of the flu will not always be the same, and there people who are particularly at higher risk for more severe outcomes than others.
“We know that influenza can cause more severe infection in infants,” Dr. Delli Pizzi says. “Children under the age of five years old have higher rates of hospitalization than some adults. Any adult, or child, with chronic health conditions, or pregnant people have more severe outcomes.”
Interior Health also cautions that people living in long term care and who are 65 years or older are also higher risk.
“This is why vaccinations and immunizations are so important at protecting people from communicative diseases,” Dr. Delli Pizzi says. “They [vaccines] are the main way that we can protect our loved ones and communities. Not just simply from getting the flu, but from also spreading influenza and allowing it to develop and grow more severe.”
Interior Health says other ways that people can stay safe are washing hands repeatedly throughout the day, keeping distance if you or someone nearby is showing symptoms, covering your mouth with your elbow if coughing, wearing a mask out in public if you experiencing cold or flu symptoms, and staying at home as soon as you are not feeling well and showing a symptoms of a cough or fever.
Dr. Delli Pizzi disputes a common myth about vaccines that they carry a live or dead variant of a flu virus within them.
“Vaccines come in many different varieties. Many, and most, vaccines have proteins from the viruses, not the viruses themselves.” Dr. Delli Pizzi explains. “These proteins are what stimulate our immune systems to create the protection against those proteins, so when we see the real virus, our bodies are prepared to combat those proteins. This is what allows us to be protected and not get sick the next time our immune systems come into contact with the virus.”
Interior Health and Dr. Delli Pizzi says that now is the best time to get an immuninization while the approaching cold season keeps people indoors for longer.
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
