Seasonal Influenza takes the lives of approximately 36,000 Americans each year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2010, Solvay-Influenza reported a total annual cost of influenza to the U.S. in excess of $11.7 billion. Immunization protects you from illness and lost work time while protecting your community at the same time. Side effects are mild and you cannot catch the flu from the deactivated viruses used in making vaccines.
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Febrile, Muscle Aches and Headache
One reason people give for refusing influenza immunization is a fear of getting the flu from the vaccine, which is an impossibility because the virus is not active when it is used to make the vaccine. The injectable form is called the inactivated influenza vaccine, and it uses a combination of three killed viruses expected to be the greatest threats in a given flu season, according to the CDC. The nasal spray is a live vaccine, but the three viruses used to make it are attenuated or deactivated so as to render them harmless.
What makes people feel like they have a mild version of the flu after being immunized is the slight elevation of body temperature they experience. This comes from the immune reaction that the body enlists to fight the vaccine as if it were an active virus. Interestingly, the Vaccine Safety Datalink, which tracks reactions to the vaccines, noted that the number of reports of fever, muscle aches, headache and a feeling of being tired or unwell occurred no more frequently after the flu vaccine than after a placebo.
Site Soreness
The CDC notes that soreness at the injection site is experienced in 10 to 60 percent of those receiving the flu vaccine. This may keep pain-sensitive people from wanting to be immunized by injection in the future.
Guillain-Barre Syndrome
Guillain-Barre Syndrome, or GBS, affects 3,000 to 6,000 Americans each year, according to the CDC. This autoimmune disorder arises when the body attacks nerve cells, causing muscle weakness, paralysis and rarely, death. Many cases follow an infection with Campylobacter, bacteria that spread through raw poultry, according to Dr. Peggy C.R. Godschalk, of the Netherlands, writing in the March 2007 issue of "Infection and Immunity." Other times, GBS occurs after a viral infection, including influenza. The baseline prevalence of one to two cases per 100,000 people is not affected by whether or not the person has had the seasonal flu vaccine, according to the CDC.
The CDC reports that in 1976, a swine flu vaccine was given to a limited number of adults, and within three months an increase of an additional one case of Guillain-Barre syndrome per 100,000 people was noted. Since then the way the swine flu and seasonal flu vaccines are made has changed and the two both now contain only killed or attenuated viruses. To see if this had resolved the GBS issue, analysts from the CDC's Emerging Infections Program, state health departments and academic centers in 10 states formed a joint panel charged with GBS case investigation and rapid response throughout the 2009 H1N1 vaccination period. The panel reported their findings in the agency's June 4, 2010, Morbidity and Mortality report. They found an additional 0.8 cases of GBS attributable to the H1N1 vaccine, which is the same number seen with a seasonal flu vaccine.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control reviewed CDC data and confirmed their findings, but they also found that among those not immunized who developed GBS, 78 percent had flu-like symptoms in the 42 days before GBS began, raising the possibility that the H1N1 or seasonal flu virus rather than a vaccine was a factor in their GBS.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS, is a disabling condition whose exact cause is yet unknown. Because it appears to be an autoimmune disorder, like Guillain-Barre Syndrome, the Canadian Laboratory Center for Disease Control concluded that there is no relationship between being immunized for the flu and developing CFS.
References
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Influenza
- Solvay-Influenza: The Cost of Influenza
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Seasonal Flu, Adverse Effects After Receipt of TIV
- "Infection and Immunity"; Structural Characterization of Campylobacter Jejuni Lipooligosaccharide Outer Cores Associated With Guillain-Barré and Miller Fisher Syndromes; Peggy C.R. Godschalk et al.; March 2007
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention: Vaccine Information, Influenza 2010-2011
