Vaccination against influenza

The influenza is one of the most common causes of medical visits and is ranked by the World Health Organization - WHO (www.who.int) along with pneumonia in 7^th place among the causes of mortality in the developed world. The vast majority of people who come into contact with the influenza virus will either have no symptoms or very mild symptoms, a smaller proportion will develop full-blown disease and a minority will develop severe symptoms and require hospitalisation.

In contrast, vaccination has been associated with a reduction in both the incidence of the disease and its complications. The WHO makes huge efforts annually to get people vaccinated before the start of the flu season (roughly October each year to April-May the following year for residents of Greece).

WHO therefore recommends:

All people over the age of six months should be vaccinated for the flu virus as soon as possible. Vaccination should start as soon as the vaccine becomes available on the market.

Children aged 6 months to 8 years who have never been vaccinated before or have not been vaccinated in the previous flu season should receive 2 doses of the vaccine 4 weeks apart. Children who have been adequately vaccinated in the previous season need only one dose of the vaccine this year

As vaccine stocks will initially be small, it is recommended that vulnerable groups of the population be vaccinated first: pregnant women, elderly people >65 years of age, patients of all ages with cardiovascular diseases, chronic lung disease, diabetes mellitus, renal failure, obesity, immunosuppression (including cancer patients) and haematological diseases. In addition, those who work in health services or those who care for people with chronic problems such as those mentioned above should be vaccinated at the outset.

People acquire protective antibodies in sufficient quantity within 2 weeks of vaccination. The side effects are insignificant compared to the benefit both personally and especially socially and consist of local swelling with pain at the injection site and possibly, but to a much lesser extent, flu-like symptoms (i.e. flu-like symptoms).

Contraindications for the administration of the vaccine are:

1. Allergy to a previous flu vaccination.
2. Severe allergy to egg.
3. Children under six months of age.
4. Patients with fever due to infection and severe symptoms.
5. Patients with a history of Guillain-Barre syndrome.