start of this year's flu season is upon
us but the time to start preparing is
now oh I can really hear the sniffles
today news six is partnering with
central care to protect Central Florida
against the flu and we're hosting a
phone bank this afternoon where a
central care team will be standing by to
answer your questions and believe me
they've heard a lot of questions but we
wanted to bring in a health expert to
answer some of the questions now joining
us today dr. Timothy Hendricks center
care medical director always good to
spend some time with you in this time of
year and you know we were talking during
the break a lot of people you know I
know you kind of want to debunk this a
lot of people say oh the flu shots not
safe what do you say to those it's
extremely safe we've got years and years
of experience with the flu vaccine and
we know that there are minimal risk to
it that it is very effective at
preventing the flu the complications of
the flu are so great that that's why we
want to get out there and Backson in
everybody and there's a lot of
misinformation about the vaccine that
you can get sick from it you cannot get
sick from the flu shot because it is a
killed virus there's no way you can get
the flu from the flu shot because it's a
dead virus and then also that that there
are people that are on you know that may
have a high risk like heart disease
diabetes etc if they get the flu they're
at significant risk from complications
so we want to make sure those people get
their flu shots and aren't discouraged
by some of the myths for information
that's out of there what about this
season it seems like we're already
hearing about cases popping up does that
indicate that we may be in for worse
season this year and we're already
seeing cases of the flu in the last week
at Central care we've seen a doubling
and the number of cases coming in we
went from like 26 to 52 cases just in
one week so it's a it's a blip so to
speak this is the start of the season
where we'll see this number of people
coming in just slowly increase but when
we get into the winter time is when
we're really gonna see the cases coming
in
we're in cold and flu season so we're
seeing a lot of runny noses and coughs
and sniffles and that type of thing but
when we start seeing the flu which is a
more serious illness meaning high fever
body aches and fatigue that will start
rolling in about Thanksgiving and flu
mist is back this year but not everyone
can get that right because the it's
processed differently
well FluMist is indicated for ages two
to 40 I believe it's a good alternative
for people that don't like shots it was
in the last two years there's not shown
to be effective against the flu so
that's why they took it off the market
did some reformulations back but
honestly I'd still recommend the flu
shot first yeah we've got a long trek
'red with track record with the
effectiveness of the flu shot if you're
seriously concerned about their shot you
can talk about the mist now the question
is with age pregnant women babies what's
kind of the we're trying to gear the flu
shots very simple everybody over the age
of six months so infants over the age of
six months can get their flu shot and a
the age group under two years children
under age two are at a higher risk of
complications from the flu people over
the age of fifty to sixty are at higher
risk of complications from the flu so we
want to focus on those groups but it
generally pregnant women it's completely
safe and we encourage pregnant women to
get the flu shot because of
complications so you remember h1n1
pregnant women died from h1n1 on 2009
h1n1 is still circulating in our
community every year we see h1n1 as one
of the strains of viruses out in our
community
last year was such a bad news and then
we had I think a record number of
children dying is what some statistics
are indicating do you think that's going
to give people more of an a push to say
okay I'm going to get my flu shot early
unfortunately memories are short when it
comes to flu shots you know what I
always see and honestly yet last year
was twice as bad as our previous worst
season it was a very bad season and we
don't know what this next year is gonna
look like but people have already
forgotten about that and we want to make
sure that we're getting the vaccine now
before we get into the season because
you need to get protected it takes two
weeks for the vaccine to take an effect
so you want to get out there and get
your flu shot if you can within but
before October before the end of October
to be protected for the season because
once we start seeing cases of flu coming
in
at increasing rates it's going to be too
late you're not going to be protected of
course we'll give the shot throughout
the season but ideally you want to do it
now most times is free or very little
cost involved right right and it may be
most the time it's covered by your
insurance we do have free flu events the
county has also the health departments
have events so it is available but your
family doctor Centracare we carry it and
again it's covered by Medicare and most
insurances great thank you very much
talk to Hendrix we appreciate you coming
thank you