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Test Your Flu I.Q.
1. Question: Can a flu vaccine give you the flu?
Answer: The flu vaccine cannot cause flu illness. The viruses in the vaccine are inactivated, which means they cannot cause infection.
2. Question: Are the stomach flu and influenza the same thing?
Answer: Stomach flu is a popular term for stomach or intestinal disease, whereas the flu is a respiratory (lung) disease. People who have the flu often feel some or all of these symptoms: fever, headache, extreme tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, and muscle aches. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea also can occur with flu, but are more common in children than adults.
3. Question: Is getting a flu vaccine in December or later too late?
Answer: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommends that people get a flu vaccination by the end of October, if possible. CDC continues to recommend flu vaccination as long as flu viruses are circulating, even in January or later. Most of the time, flu activity peaks between December and March, although activity can last as late as May.
4. Question: Should people be vaccinated against the flu each and every year?
Answer: Yes. The CDC recommends yearly vaccination for two reasons. First, new flu vaccines are made each year and often updated to fight against the three or four (depending on vaccine) influenza viruses research suggests will be most common. Second, immunity declines over time, so a yearly vaccination is required for optimal protection.
5. Question: Is washing your hands the best thing you can do to protect against the flu?
Answer: The CDC recommends a flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against the flu. However, preventative actions like covering your cough and washing your hands often are important everyday steps that can help stop the spread of germs.
6. Question: Is the flu typically spread through coughs and/or sneezes?
Answer: Yes. Flu virus is mainly spread through droplets from coughs and sneezes.
7. Question: Is the flu a serious illness?
Answer: Flu is a serious contagious disease that causes illness and related hospitalizations and deaths every year in the United States. Flu seasons can vary in severity. The CDC estimates that flu-related hospitalizations since 2010 ranged from 140,000 to 710,000, while flu-related deaths are estimated to have ranged from 12,000 to 56,000.
8. Question: Can you spread the flu to others before you have symptoms?
Answer: Most healthy adults may be able to infect others beginning 1 day before symptoms develop and up to 5 days after becoming sick.
9. Question: Is there treatment for the flu?
Answer: There are prescription medications called antiviral drugs that can be used to treat the flu. Antiviral drugs are pills, liquid or inhaled powder that fight against the flu in your body. Antivirals are not a substitute for getting a flu vaccine.
10. Question: Does the flu vaccine offer protection immediately after it is given?
Answer: It takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body that provide protection against influenza (flu) virus infection. That is why it's better to get vaccinated before the flu season really gets under way. The CDC recommends people get vaccinated by the end of October, if possible.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). The Flu I.Q. Retrieved June 11, 2018, from https://www.cdc.gov
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