Should I get the flu shot?!
Question: I work in a nursing home so I believe that maybe I should get the flu shot. I have gotten flu shots in the past and everytime I get them I feel like crap after. How does it work, do they give you a dead strain of the virus? Do some people feel worse after or is it just a myth?
Answers: I work in a nursing home so I believe that maybe I should get the flu shot. I have gotten flu shots in the past and everytime I get them I feel like crap after. How does it work, do they give you a dead strain of the virus? Do some people feel worse after or is it just a myth?
If you've received flu shots in the past and feel like crap afterwards, you may still want to get the flu shot this year. The reason you feel sick after you get a flu shot is because your body's immune system gears up to fight the flu virus you've been injected with. While the flu virus in the shot is dead and can't give you the flu, its normal for some people to react to the flu shot with a fever and general malaise for 3-5 days after they receive it. So it is not a myth that the flu shot will make you sick after you receive it. It is a common reaction. The flu shot takes two weeks to work in the body, which is why doctors' offices recommend getting the flu shot in early November before the start of flu season, which lasts until March. I plan to get the flu shot this week and I know it will make me ill for a few days b/c I have a weak immune system (just quit smoking 4 months ago, and have a thyroid disease). But I feel safe knowing that the shot will *not* give me the flu - dead viruses can't infect you - but I do know that it will probably make me sick for about a week with a fever, chills, and a general yuckiness. But in two weeks, my immune system will be done reacting to the shot, and if the strain B flu comes around me, I will be protected. This year, the flu shot contains the Strain B of flu according to my doctor's office. Next year it could be a different strain for all we know. There are so many.
So my advice, get the flu shot if you are worried you may bring the flu to your patients in the nursing home where you work; knowing that the shot will make you sick between 3-5 days b/c of how it ramps up your immune system (tricks it in to believeing its fighting off an actual flu) until your immune system develops antibodies (takes two weeks to do so for any viral or bacterial infection, shot or actual illness) and then your fever, chills, nausea and malaise feeling will disappear and you'll feel better. But it will not give you the flu. I'm going in this morning to get my shot, that I actually posted about on here, worried b/c my sister's children all have the stomach flu and they will still be infectious this whole week because kids can be infectious for up to 14 days after they get the virus, whereas adults are infectious for about 3-5 days after they catch a virus.
Flu vaccine is an inactivated vaccine, meaning that it contains killed influenza virus. The killed influenza virus is injected into muscles and stimulates the immune system to produce an immune response (antibodies) to the influenza virus. When the virus enters a person who has been vaccinated, the antibodies attack and kill the virus and prevent infection.
Hmm... I'm having a cold now. I had my flu vaccination in Oct. It doesn't work for cold!
Flu vaccine is an inactivated vaccine (contain dead virus) ==> it cannot make u get a dead strain of the virus. When injected with the vaccine, ur immune system have a good chance to "practise" with sandbag=dead virus. So when u get a flu (infected with real+live viruses), ur immune sys can perform their ability to protect u from flu ... in theory !!! And no person feel worse after taking the inject.
But because there are so many type of flu virus, and with one type, it changes so frequently ===> u still have risk to get a flu !!!
I have never had a flu shot if they were available.
I don't want to take a chance with getting a reaction from them.
Have I gotten the flu? Not sure, but how often do people actually get the flu?