How do I prevent getting the flu?!
Question: What can I do?
Answers: What can I do?
Prevention
These steps can help you stay healthy, even at the height of flu season:
Get an annual flu vaccination. The best time to be vaccinated is October or November. This allows your body time to develop antibodies to the flu virus before peak flu season, which in the Northern Hemisphere is usually December through March. Keep in mind that the flu vaccine doesn't offer complete protection, especially for older adults, but it can reduce the risk and severity of illness. In any given year, the flu shot may be 70 percent to 90 percent effective in young, otherwise healthy people, but is far less effective in older adults. Health experts still recommend vaccinations for people over 50 because the flu shot may reduce the risk of flu-related complications, hospitalizations and deaths.
Healthy people ages 2 to 49 alternatively may receive the flu vaccine via a nasal spray called FluMist. It protects against the same strains of influenza that the flu shot does. Like the flu shot, FluMist is given every year. Because FluMist contains live, but weakened, flu viruses, it shouldn't be used by pregnant women, people with weakened immune systems and those with chronic illnesses. A study published in 2006 found that FluMist was only between 30 percent and 57 percent effective in preventing the flu in adults. However, another study in 2006 found that giving nasal spray vaccine to school-age children helped to reduce the spread of flu in the community. And in 2007, researchers compared the effectiveness of FluMist with the flu shot in children ages 6 months to 5 years. The children treated with FluMist experienced about half as many cases of flu as did those treated with the shot. However, FluMist increases the risk of wheezing in this age group