Influenza or “the flu” is a serious contagious disease. Each year in the United States more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications, 20,000 of whom are children younger than 5 years old. Approximately 36,000 people die from flu each year, which is more than the number of people who die from more widely publicized causes such as prostate cancer, homicide, and MRSA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges you to take the following steps to protect yourself and others from the flu:

1. Take time to get a flu vaccine.
   The CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine as the first and most important step in protecting against this serious disease. While there are many different flu viruses, the flu vaccine protects against the three main flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. The vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses or it can make your illness milder if you get a different flu virus. Getting a vaccine is very important for people at high risk for serious flu complications, including young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes or heart or lung disease, and people 65 and older. People who live with or care for those at high risk should also get a flu vaccine to protect their high-risk contact.


2. Take everyday preventive actions.
   The things you do everyday can make you more or less likely to get the flu. Some simple preventative measures can reduce your chances of getting the flu dramatically: Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective. Try to avoid close contact with sick people. Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth because this is the main way germs are spread. If you get the flu, you can reduce the chances of infecting others by staying home from work or school and limiting contact with others, covering your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze, and throwing the tissue in the trash after you use it.


3. Take flu antiviral drugs if your doctor recommends them.
   If you do get the flu, antiviral drugs are an important treatment option. (They are not a substitute for vaccination.) Antiviral drugs are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaler) that fight against the flu by keeping flu viruses from reproducing in your body. These drugs can make your illness milder and make you feel better faster and may also prevent serious flu complications. This could be especially important for people at high risk. Antiviral drugs work best if started within two days soon of developing flu-like symptoms, which include: fever (usually high), headache, extreme tiredness, dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and muscle aches.

For more information on the flu or to pose a question to other people like you or to health experts, see the Healia Health Community on Cold and Flu.

Related Healia Health Blog post on National Influenza Vaccincation Week

_{Source: Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008. http://www.cdc.gov/flu/protect/preventing.htm}

_{Photo: Lost Albatross, Flickr, Creative Commons}