Flu shots: Taking sting out of myths

It seems that many people — 38 percent in one group of older adults — still believe the influenza vaccine can give you the flu.

It can't. Doctors are in widespread agreement on this. The injected vaccine is made from dead virus, which is incapable of launching an infection in your body.

Nonetheless, physicians and other health workers anticipate objections this year from fearful patients. Now that the vaccines are recommended for babies, such unfounded worries become even more serious: They could prevent some of the most vulnerable from getting the protection they need.

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the flu shot for people 65 and older; children 6 months to 23 months; anyone with a chronic health condition; health workers; anyone near a child 2 or younger; and women more than three months pregnant. The agency urges all other healthy Americans to consider getting the vaccine.

"There is a prevailing myth that the vaccine causes the flu, and it bothers me," says Dr. Richard Kent Zimmerman, an associate professor of family medicine and clinical epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh.

"It particularly bothers me because, in the 1990s, there were 36,000 deaths annually in the United States from flu. ... We've had a couple of milder years since then, but we may not have a mild year this year."

Symptoms aren't flu

Zimmerman wrote a study of 1,383 people, age 66 and older, which found that 38 percent of unvaccinated people fear they will get the flu from the shot. The study was published in January in the American Journal of Medicine.

According to the CDC, the flu shot can cause only mild symptoms such as soreness in the arm, a low-grade fever and body aches.

"You would not get a cough, runny nose, congestion or sore throat," says Jeffrey Goad, an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Southern California.

If you develop more severe symptoms, you probably contracted a virus about the time you received the flu shot, Goad says.

Because the elderly are more likely than other age groups to develop a low fever from the flu vaccine, they often are more reluctant to get the shot, says Stella Henry, a nurse and founder of the Vista del Sol Care Center in Culver City, Calif. Officials at the skilled nursing and assisted-living center have promoted flu vaccination in recent years, because flu deaths most often occur in the elderly.

Nasal spray vaccine

Some people may skip the vaccine — not because they're afraid of getting sick from it — but because they're afraid of needles. But this year they have no excuse.

For the first time, healthy people ages 5 to 49 can opt for the nasal spray flu vaccine called FluMist (approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June). One dose is required, except for children ages 5 to 8 who need two doses six weeks apart.

But there is an important difference with FluMist: It is made from a weakened strain of live flu virus, and thus could cause side effects that are a bit more pronounced than those from the shot.

"It's harder to predict what will happen with FluMist because it hasn't been used in millions of people," Goad says. "In studies, there were some side effects, such as a runny nose. Since it is a live vaccine, it may cause more symptoms such as fever, chills and headache, even a little sore throat and cough. But it shouldn't cause the flu. The FDA approved it because it was very safe and had a low occurrence of side effects."

Flu and babies

The vast majority of Americans lining up for flu vaccines this year will receive the shot, including the newest group considered a "high risk" for influenza — babies ages 6 to 23 months.

Last month, a CDC advisory committee recommended adding annual flu shots to the childhood immunization schedule. The CDC still must formally enact the recommendation, but many doctors are expected to comply this year with the change.

Though flu rarely kills babies, it can cause serious complications such as pneumonia. The CDC says 17,000 children under age 2 are hospitalized each year from flu complications, making this age group as likely to be hospitalized for flu as people age 65 and older.

Preventing flu in this age group may also spare more adults from getting sick. "A lot of preschool-age children bring flu home" to the family, Zimmerman says.

As in adults age 65 and up, some babies may have a slight fever from a flu shot. Zimmerman urges Americans to put the importance of vaccination over inconvenience and minor side effects.

"The number of deaths in adults and hospitalizations is the reason we use the vaccine," he says. "A flu shot is something fairly simple that is going to be cost-saving. There are so many benefits to vaccination. A flu shot costs $9 wholesale. That's a pretty good deal in my book."