With recent news coverage focusing so heavily on the coronavirus, you may have forgotten that we are also in the middle of flu season. A recent article from CNBC explained how the flu is a more serious threat to the United States than the coronavirus is at this time. While only about a dozen cases of the coronavirus have been reported in the US, over 19 million people have had the flu in the United States, and 10,000 of these cases resulted in death. With that being said, the coronavirus does have a higher mortality rate than influenza, killing approximately 2% of the people who contract, while the flu kills only .095% of the people who fall ill. Luckily, if people begin to take more caution against the coronavirus as this is being discussed in the news, then they will also be protecting themselves from influenza. Hand sanitizer containing alcohol is effective at killing both of these viruses because they are encapsulated, and frequent handwashing is always a good precaution against becoming sick.
The influenza virus changes annually due to antigenic drift, which changes the virus enough so that our immune systems do not recognize it and do not know how to defend against it. To combat this constantly changing virus, scientists predict which strains will be active each year and develop new vaccines. A recent CDC report examined previous trends in flu activity and explained how scientists decided what type of vaccine would be the most effective for the 2019-2020 flu season, and they also provided recommendations on how the vaccines should be used. Flu vaccines should be administered to everyone over the age of 6 months, and children between the age of 6 months and 8 years old require two doses of the vaccine. This year will one vaccine that is quadrivalent, containing HA from 2 influenza A viruses and 2 influenza B viruses, and one that is trivalent, which only contains one of the B viruses aforementioned. The trivalent vaccine is recommended for people aged 65 and older.
According to an article from NBC, we do not know if flu season has peaked yet, so it is difficult to determine how effective this year’s vaccine is. However, the article did explain how children do seem to be highly affected by the flu this season, suggesting that the B strain of the flu, which impacts children more severely than adults, is not a perfect match. The A strain, which is more of a concern for adults, does not peak until later in the season, so we will not be able to tell how effective the vaccine is against this strain until later. Even though we are well into flu season, doctors recommend that you should still get the vaccine if you have not already done so. The symptoms of the flu include fever, cough, sore throat, and aches, so if you experience these symptoms, stay home from work or school and visit your doctor. Do not assume that it is not the flu just because you got the flu shot; they are not 100% effective!
Aly's Microbiology Blog 