Flu / Influenza Is A Leading Pressure Associated With The Winter Season

Millions of people get the flu each year in the US, about 2000 of those people will be severe enough to get hospitalized and about 3600 people will die because of some complication with the flu as stated in the article “Flu” on the Walgreens website.

To get the flu vaccine or not to get the flu vaccine? This is a huge controversial question millions of Americans today ask themselves every year. There are many myths that come along with the topic of the flu vaccine that lead to people questioning the effectiveness of the medication. Safety for our families and loved ones is what we aim to achieve, but what are the pros and cons of this vaccine? What are the consequences and what are myths, but most importantly: what are the reasons we should get it in the first place? In this paper you will learn the many reasons for the flu vaccination and how it affects different populations beginning with children all the way to the elderly population. First of all, what is the flu

Throughout the history, influenza viruses have caused several pandemics or global epidemics, killing many people. For example, the influenza strike in 1918 to 1919 infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide, which is one-third of the planet’s population at the time and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million people. More than 25 percentage of the U.S. population were affected, and caused 675,000 deaths in U.S during the pandemic.(History, 2015). There were no effective treatments for this type of influenza and no available vaccines can prevent its spread during the period. (History, 2015) U.S government required general population to wear masks and other protective equipments in public areas, and many public places also closed due to the influenza strike. Health care providers tried everything they knew to save people, but none shows any evidence of effects. (National Center for Biotechnology Information [NCBI], 2015). Scientists found out that the influenza virus had invaded their lungs and caused pneumonia, which made so many people died from the pandemic (History,2015). Another influenza strike happened

Every fall season we hear the question; did you get your flu shot yet? It is supposed to protect you from that nasty flu virus that circulates our communities during the fall and winter months. But, did you know that in 2011 the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Adverse Event Reporting Systems Website (AERS) reported 51 deaths caused by the flu vaccine in the United States (U.S.) (CDC,2012). According to National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), as of July 2012 there have been more than 84,000 reports of adverse reactions, 1000 vaccine related deaths and over 1600 cases of Guillain- Barre syndrome, a acute form of paralysis, triggered by the vaccine (NVIC.ORG).

For the past ten years, we at Virginia Mason Medical Center have been implementing mandatory influenza vaccination. This is due to the flu vaccination being able to reduce flu illnesses and prevent flu-related hospitalizations. According to the Center for Control and Disease (CDC, 2014) during 2012-2013, an estimated 45% of the U.S population got vaccinated, helping to prevent an estimated 6.6 million flu-related illness, with 3.2 million flu-related medical visits, almost 80,000 hospitalizations and roughly $87 billion dollars in total economic burden. Influenza is extremely contagious and each year on an average 5%-20% of the U.S population get the flu with tens of thousands die from a flu-related illness. Therefore, many health cares setting along with Virginia Mason Medical Center is mandating all their healthcare workers to get the influenza vaccination. Consequently, making annual influenza vaccination requirement for healthcare workers a continuing and debatable health topic. The potential of getting the vaccination have great benefits to healthcare professionals, their patients, and their families by

Influenza, also known as the flu, is a highly contagious viral disease that affects the upper respiratory tract. Flu season typically lasts between the months of October and April. Signs and symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue, runny nose, and headaches. Individuals that are at a high risk of getting the flu include: children under the age of two, persons 65 and older, pregnant women, and persons with a chronic illness. Environment factors can also increase the risk of contracting the flu. Complications can include pneumonia, ear and sinus infections, dehydration, or worsening of chronic medical conditions. The influenza virus could eventually lead to longer hospitalization or death if left untreated. According to the CDC, the best way to prevent the flu is by getting vaccinated each year. Compliance with the vaccination is also important in preventing the flu.

In recent years encouragement to get flu shots has become a yearly mantra. Elderly, children six months to two years, health care workers and immune-deficient people are urged in the strongest terms to go to their doctors or clinics and get a flu shot. This group encompasses about 98 million people. In the fall of 2004 this was in the forefront of American and to some extent the Western World media with the shortage of this flu seasons vaccine. Current medical wisdom states that flu shots are safe, effective and prevent mortality. A recent study published by The Journal of the American Medicine Association (JAMA) has brought the current wisdom into question. On February 14, 2005 JAMA

Each year 6-20% of U.S. residents are infected by influenza and more than 200,000 people are hospitalized due to complications (Klepser, Corn, Schmidt, Dering-Anderson, & Klepser, 2015). Influenza has a huge impact on not only the health of our nation, but economically, as well. Studies show that the single most effective way to prevent the spread of influenza is to vaccinate. The CDC recommends that all children over 6 months old to be vaccinated against influenza yearly (CDC, n.d.). Seldom have there been medical advancements that have impacted the health of billions of people. One such important medical advancement is the invention of vaccines. At the end of the 20th century, the CDC published its list of

This memo outlines ways to address the recurring shortages of the influenza vaccine that occurred in the United States between 2000 and 2004. There were two important contributing factors to these vaccine shortages. First, there has been a significant reduction over the past few decades in the number of companies that choose to manufacture the flu vaccine. Second, the government has taken a laissez-faire approach to managing the distribution of the vaccine, even in times of shortage. In order to fully accomplish our overarching goal – to

The flu is spread very easily and many people have contracted it before the symptoms genuinely start to be seen. On average 200,000 people are hospitalized, and

The seasonal influenza vaccine has been in existence for a numerous amount of decades, therefore so has the gradual implementation of the vaccination. Through recent studies, the break through knowledge of the importance of enforcing the requirement of this vaccine for children has acquired increasing acceptance statistics. During the many outbreaks of different classified strands of avian influenza, the health care community has been unable to retain the virus and alleviate patients efficiently. However current tallies have shown that the system for controlling these outbreaks have improved lowering the mortality rate profoundly. (BioScience Trends, 2013).

“The 1918 influenza pandemic caused the deaths of more than 675,000 Americans and over fifty million people worldwide. The devastation and fear posed by this epidemic are, in part, what drives the preparedness of the United States today” (“Vaccines”). Nevertheless, the Reuters Health Medical News Journal found that fifty-three percent of adolescents, aged thirteen to seventeen, did not receive the influenza vaccine during the 2015-2016 flu season (“U.S. Teens Receiving Vaccinations”). Despite knowledge of previous influenza pandemics, parents choose not to inoculate their children.

The effects of flu range from mild to severe and most healthy people recover within two weeks. However, those with weak immune systems may suffer complications such as bronchitis, sinus, ear infections, and pneumonia and it is even fatal for patients with asthma.

Influenza is a highly contagious disease which can spread across the population by the body secretions which contain the active influenza virus (10). It poses serious threats to the society as it promotes fear, anxiety, discrimination, and cause destruction on the normal function of the society (5). Until people develop immunity against the influenza virus (10), an influenza pandemic will remain a global emergency as extremely high number of people all over the world will require care at the same time (3). Since the global impact of pandemic varies across history, any expectation or prediction regarding the magnitude and impact of a new influenza pandemic will often be overestimated or underestimated (5, 6, 7, 11). The sudden and dramatic increase in demands upon the health system during a pandemic would challenge the already stretched healthcare system capacity, which emphasise the need for the government to develop and implement an influenza response (1, 7), in which will often cause confliction between the individual and community interests (7). Hence the collaboration of all levels of government, private and voluntary sectors, and the general public is very important (3, 7).This essay will discuss the approaches which the government can adopt in order to allocate the limited resources as well as the strategies which it can adopt to reduce the spread of virus for as long as possible.

Flu is a viral infection that is spread from one person to the other through the secretions of the lungs and the nose when sneezing. Influenza is a medical term used for common flu. It is an inflection that develops mainly in the lungs. The primary symptoms for the influenza include: severe body ache, malaise and high fever. The flu virus is scientifically dividend in designated group A, B and C. The designated groups A and B are responsible for respiratory epidemic illness that usually occurs in every winter season (Louis, 2011). Type C of the influenza usually causes very mild respiratory illness and does not have harsh public health impacts like those caused by type A and B. Flu is a common illness across the world. In United States, about 5 to 20% of the population is affected by the flu, about 36,000 people usually die from flu complications and about 200,000 people are usually hospitalization as a result of flu complicated issues. The famous swine flu which occurred in 2009 was mainly caused by designated group (A) virus which occurred in pigs. As a result of this, there are mainly two types of flu vaccine which include: nasal spray vaccines and injection vaccine. Each year, the flu virus may change slightly hence making the vaccine used previously to be ineffective. The marketing plan will aim at elaborating how the flu vaccine shall be adopted, the research that shall be conducted, the