National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) is Dec. 1-7, 2019. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established NIVW in 2005 to highlight the importance of continuing flu vaccination through the holiday season and beyond.
Previous flu vaccination coverage data have shown that few people get vaccinated against influenza after the end of November. The CDC and its partners choose December to remind people that even though the holiday season has begun, it is not too late to get a flu vaccine.
As long as flu viruses are spreading and causing illness, vaccination should continue throughout flu season in order to protect as many people as possible against flu. While vaccination is recommended before the end of October, getting vaccinated later can still be beneficial during most seasons for people who have put it off. Even if have already gotten sick with flu, you can still benefit from vaccination since many different flu viruses spread during flu season and most flu vaccine protects against four different flu viruses.
Flu isn’t a “bad cold” and can result in serious health complications, such as pneumonia, bacterial infections, and can lead to hospitalization. Flu can sometimes even lead to death.
Most people who get flu will recover in several days to less than two weeks, but some people will develop serious flu complications. All people are at risk of developing serious flu complications and certain groups are at higher risk. For people at higher risk, flu is more likely to lead to serious flu complications that can result in hospitalization or even death. People at high risk of serious flu complications include young children, pregnant women, people with certain chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart disease or lung disease, and people 65 years and older. Anyone who gets flu can pass it to someone at high risk of severe illness, including children younger than six months who are too young to get a flu vaccine.
There are many reasons to get a flu vaccine each year:
Flu vaccination can keep you from getting sick with flu.
· Flu vaccine prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctor’s visits each year. For example, during 2016-2017, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 5.3 million influenza illnesses, 2.6 million influenza-associated medical visits, and 85,000 influenza-associated hospitalizations.
· In seasons when the vaccine viruses matched circulating strains, flu vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of having to go to the doctor with flu by 40 percent to 60 percent.
Flu vaccination can reduce the risk of flu-associated hospitalization for children, working-age adults, and older adults.
· Flu vaccine prevents tens of thousands of hospitalizations each year. For example, during 2016-2017, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 85,000 flu-related hospitalizations.
· A 2014 study showed that flu vaccine reduced children’s risk of flu-related pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission by 74% during flu seasons from 2010-2012.
· In recent years, flu vaccines have reduced the risk of flu-associated hospitalizations among adults on average by about 40%.
· A 2018 study showed that from 2012 to 2015, flu vaccination among adults reduced the risk of being admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) with flu by 82 percent.
Flu vaccination helps prevent serious medical events associated with some chronic conditions.
· Vaccination has been associated with lower rates of some cardiac events among people with heart disease, especially among those who had had a cardiac event in the past year.
· Flu vaccination also has been shown in separate studies to be associated with reduced hospitalizations among people with diabetes and chronic lung disease.
Vaccination helps protect women during and after pregnancy.
· Vaccination reduces the risk of flu-associated acute respiratory infection in pregnant women by up to one-half.
· A 2018 study showed that getting a flu shot reduced a pregnant woman’s risk of being hospitalized with flu by an average of 40 percent.
· Getting vaccinated can also protect a baby after birth from flu. (Mom passes antibodies onto the developing baby during her pregnancy.)
· A number of studies have shown that in addition to helping to protect pregnant women, a flu vaccine given during pregnancy helps protect the baby from flu infection for several months after birth, when he or she is not old enough to be vaccinated.
Flu vaccine can be life-saving in children.
· A 2017 study was the first of its kind to show that flu vaccination can significantly reduce a child’s risk of dying from influenza.
Flu vaccination has been shown in several studies to reduce severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick.
· A 2017 study showed that flu vaccination reduced deaths, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, ICU length of stay, and overall duration of hospitalization among hospitalized flu patients.
· A 2018 study showed that among adults hospitalized with flu, vaccinated patients were 59 percent less likely to be admitted to the ICU than those who had not been vaccinated. Among adults in the ICU with flu, vaccinated patients on average spent four fewer days in the hospital than those who were not vaccinated.
