Influenza Hospitalization

Hi my name is Marah and today I am going to persuade you to get a Flu vaccination. I recently got a job working at Walgreens Pharmacy. Every day that I work I see people coming in to pick up their prescriptions that don’t look like the feel very great, with a tissue in one hand and their money in the other. No one wants to be sick, it’s not fun and it makes you feel like crap and you get absolutely nothing done. So it would only make sense if everyone was taking the precautionary measure in getting a flu shot. People should be lining up to get their vaccinations in order to prevent them from them getting sick and missing school, work or important events; but they aren’t, at Walgreens, we give maybe about 4 flu shots a day,

As of January, 85 flu related deaths have been confirmed since the beginning of the 2017-2018 influenza season. Each year we experience what is known as flu season, with new strains of the virus infecting millions of people each year, some years receiving a flu vaccine is not sufficient protection from developing the flu and flu like symptoms. The current 2018 flu season is a bad season. The vaccine that was developed and administered unfortunately was not correctly developed.

Although the majority of people infected with influenza recover completely within a week to ten days, some people are at a greater risk of experiencing more severe and long-lasting complications. The flu can lead to complications such as pneumonia and in some circumstances, severe complications in high-risk groups can lead to death. The number of deaths attributed to influenza varies each year, but it is estimated to be approximately 500 to 1500 deaths per influenza season. People who are at an increased risk for complications include very young children, people over 65 years of age, and those already suffering from medical conditions including bronchitis, heart disease, diabetes, and kidney disease. Influenza vaccinations administered to high-risk people reduce hospitalizations, premature deaths, and they result in substantial cost savings to the health care system.

     There have been about 20 million reported deaths due to the influenza of 1918. The doctors were too overwhelmed by the many cases they had to care for, which brought about many unreported cases, causing this minuscule number. One fateful day in October 759 people died in Philadelphia (Kolata 19-20). The epidemic spread so far so fast that public officials became frantic looking for ways to fend off the virus. Arrests were made for spitting and coughing, public meetings were prohibited, and a series of medical procedures were all attempts to prevent the virus from entering victims’ lungs (Persico 83).

The influenza vaccination in not only beneficial to recipients but also those that come in contact with the individuals exposed to or at risk for contracting influenza. Health care workers are at a constant risk of exposure to various diseases and illness including influenza. An emergency such as a vaccination shortage for influenza will not only affect at risk individuals but spread rapidly to all those exposed without knowledge or a-symptomatic at time of encounter. Health care workers will be exposed in physician offices, hospitals, emergency care or urgent care centers with heightened possibility of spreading the illness (CDC, 2015). Health care workers are not limited to the obvious: physicians or nurses but also, therapists, EMS,

Seasonal influenza is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in the industrialized world. The United States alone averages more than 23,000 influenza-associated deaths annually (Cortes-Penfield, 2014). Everyone is given the option to receive the flu vaccination each year. The vaccine is offered in health care facilities, clinics, and pharmacies around

As we head into the fall, that also means that we're headed for cold and flu season. Being sick is terrible and disruptive to both your personal and work life and catching an illness could mean it ransacking your entire family.

The problem can be better quantified by gaining understanding of the importance of receiving the flu vaccination. The manager of any health care facility should ensure that staff and patients, specifically those with a higher risk of contracting the flu, receives the yearly influenza vaccination. Health care staff that does not comply with yearly influenza vaccinations should be transferred to a unit with limited patient contact. High-risk patients who are not compliant with receiving the vaccine are to receive further education of the deadly effects associated with developing the influenza virus. In all patients it is imperative to provide proper patient

Influenza is a common illness in children. Seasonal influenza especially affects children in childcare and schools and school-age children facilitate the spread of influenza within schools, households, and communities. Influenza spreads mainly from droplets made when people sneeze, cough, or talk. Since droplets can travel 30 feet, all children in a classroom are potentially exposed. Influenza is highly contagious and can spread from person to person even before symptoms appear and can be contagious for a week after symptoms appear. Children are most vulnerable to infection and the hospitalization rate of influenza is highest in young children. Influenza outbreaks not only cause thousands of deaths, they lead to complications such as otitis media, sinusitis, and pneumonia. One study showed that influenza vaccination reduced children’s risk of

At the peak of the 2014-2015 Seasonal Influenza Pandemic in the United States, 9.3% of all deaths reported in the 122 Cities Mortality Reporting System were attributed to Pneumonia and Influenza (P&I), underscoring how lethal the flu can be, especially to people who are already sick, children, and the elderly. In the first week of February 2015, over 60% of influenza-associated hospitalizations involved patients 65 and older, the highest rate since the CDC began tracking that data in 2005. Extrapolating that, more than 92,000 people aged 65 and older had been hospitalized

As the Franklin County Health Commissioner for Ohio Susan Tilgner states, many people do not take the flu vaccine because they claim that they never get sick. Tilgner states that people simply underestimate the flu and the massive problems that it can cause. She continues and says that for these people who finally get it, that it just simply takes everything out

Most people perceive “the flu” to be a common (not a big deal) illness, but they overlook the 20,000 deaths and over 100,000 hospitalizations nationwide.

People are misled to believe that flu-related deaths are based on body counts, lab tests or autopsies. Shockingly, the numbers of flu deaths are based on a statistical guess and assumptions made from a computer model (Growe). Dr. Michael Gardam, director of the infection prevention and control unit at the University Health Network in Toronto and Dr. Tom Jefferson, a researcher with the Cochrane Collaboration were interviewed by a CBC News reported Kelly Growe. Both doctors stated that the computer model is unreliable and is nothing more than guesswork that is far from the truth. Dr. Michael Graham supported his statement by explaining how “one model counts all respiratory and circulatory deaths - that’s death from heart and lung failure - as flu deaths. Deaths from pneumonia, even though not all pneumonia is caused by flu” are categorized within the model as flu deaths during the flu season. Ironically, according to U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “people who caught the Spanish flu in 1918(the world’s worst pandemic flu in history that lead to 20 million deaths worldwide) did not die from it, but from the complications caused by bacteria, such as pneumonia” (“Pandemic Flu History”). Statistics Canada stated that there were about 300 influenza-related deaths each year between 2000 and 2008. Following the flu pandemic, H1N1 hit in 2009, the final count of flu-related deaths among 34

Motivation: It is senseless to lose your life over getting sick from a preventable illness in this day and age, yet according to Harvard University, nearly 36,000 people in the US alone die each year solely from the flu. (end with picture again).

Background & Audience Relevance: Influenza is an infection that can affect anyone around the world. Am quite sure almost everyone, if not all of us, have been infected with influenza at some point in our lives.