{"id":109952,"date":"2019-12-02T11:00:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-02T16:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109952"},"modified":"2019-12-02T11:00:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-02T16:00:36","slug":"its-not-too-late-to-get-protected-from-the-flu-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/?p=109952","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not too late to get protected from the flu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This week is National Influenza Vaccination Week, and\nMadison County Department of Health is reminding you that it\u2019s not too late to\nget your flu vaccine. It is recommended to be vaccinated by the end of October\nso that people are more likely to be protected against the flu when activity\npicks up in your area, vaccination into December and beyond can be beneficial\nduring most flu seasons, including this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFlu season most often peaks between December and March, but\nactivity can occur as late as May,\u201d says Katie Mungari, Madison County Director\nof Community Health. \u201cWe are encouraging people who have not yet been\nvaccinated this season to get vaccinated now.\u201d It takes about two weeks after\nvaccination for antibodies that protect against influenza virus infection to\ndevelop in the body, so it\u2019s best to get vaccinated early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For millions of people every season, the flu means a fever,\ncough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle aches, fatigue, and miserable\ndays spent in bed. Millions of people get sick, hundreds of thousands are\nhospitalized, and thousands to tens of thousands of people die from flu each\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a vaccine that can help reduce the risk of flu and\nits potentially serious complications. While the vaccine varies in how well it\nworks, there are many studies that show that flu vaccination reduces flu\nillnesses, doctor visits, and missed work and school due to flu, as well as\nprevents flu-related hospitalizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CDC recommends a yearly flu vaccine for everyone 6 months of\nage and older as the first and most important step in protecting against\nseasonal flu viruses. Some people are at high risk for serious flu-related\ncomplications that can lead to hospitalization and even death. People at high\nrisk include pregnant women<\/a>, children\nyounger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old<\/a>, people\n65 year of age and older<\/a>, and people who have certain medical conditions,\nsuch as asthma, diabetes, and heart disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaccinating pregnant women helps protect them from flu\nillness and hospitalization, and also has been shown to help protect the baby\nfrom flu infection for several months after birth, before the baby can be\nvaccinated. Flu vaccination has also been associated with lower rates of some\ncardiac events, such as a heart attack, among people with heart disease, especially\namong those who had had a cardiac event in the 12 months prior to flu\nvaccination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those at high risk of serious flu complications, getting\na flu vaccine is especially important. It\u2019s also important to get the vaccine\nif you care for anyone at high risk, including children younger than 6 months\nwho are too young to get a flu vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting the flu vaccine is simple, and it\u2019s the most\nimportant thing you can do to protect yourself and your family from the flu,\u201d\nsays Mungari. Hundreds of millions of Americans have safely received flu\nvaccines over the past 50 years, and there has been extensive research\nsupporting the safety of seasonal flu vaccines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the seriousness of the flu and the benefits of flu\nvaccination(https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/)<\/a>, talk to your doctor or other health\ncare professional, or visit www.healthymadisoncounty.org<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week is National Influenza Vaccination Week, and Madison County Department of Health is reminding you that it\u2019s not too late to get your flu vaccine. It is recommended to be vaccinated by the end of October so that people are more likely to be protected against the flu when activity picks up in your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[23810,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellbeing","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/immunizations.jpg?fit=2067%2C830&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-sBq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/66743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}