County Launches Annual War On Flu Bug

Video: Flu Shots

TAMPA - A steady stream of elderly people paraded into the Brandon Senior Center on Tuesday morning, becoming the first foot soldiers this fall to enlist in the annual microscopic war with the relentless influenza virus.

The operation usually runs smoothly, and this year is no different. Seniors, many of whom are called in from the bingo session next door, file in and fill out the paperwork before walking to the shot station. Each handed over Medicare cards to pay for the vaccinations; each was given a yellow card to remind them to come back next year, same time and same location.

Clinton Pons, 82, of Brandon rolled up the sleeve on his left arm, revealing a convenient target for the shot. The faded tattoo said "U.S. Air Corps, 1941." For Pons, the annual flu shot was nothing to fret about.

"I flew 47 missions over Europe," he said as the inoculation was delivered just above the ink.

Not a flinch.

Tuesday's first round of flu shots opened the door to the seasonal onslaught on the virus. Six other senior centers in the county will follow suit over the next days and weeks, and the county health department will announce its immunization push, which begins Monday at a half-dozen health department locations throughout the county. Those locations are on the department's Web site, www.hillscountyhealth.org.

Welcome to flu season in Florida.

The vaccine is available annually through the health department, doctors' offices and community clinics, and there is plenty of it to go around, according to the health department's Web site.

Doug Holt, director of the health department, said his agency's push starts on Monday, even though other groups in the county, including the Hillsborough Department of Aging Services, which sponsored Tuesday's round of shots, are getting a jump on this year's flu season.

Holt said the shots can be a lifesaver.

"What the public doesn't realize," he said, "is that we have people who become very sick and die due to influenza. In this community, we have an increase of 40 to 50 deaths during a typical flu season.

"People say that that is a mild flu season, but it's still a big deal when 40 or 50 people die," he said. "Getting shots is a way of protecting yourself and others. We're trying to vaccinate people before the actual flu season hits or is at its peak. The peak in Florida is as early as December but mostly in January and February."

The flu is the flu, he said, and so far this year, there is no identifiable dominant strain. Such strains may emerge, and that's why it's important to get the shots early.

Mostly the immunizations take the form of shots. Ninety percent of the people getting the vaccine get it via the needle, he said. The other kind, which is given in the form of a nose spray, is given only to people who are healthy and who have an aversion to shots, he said. The nasal immunization also is a bit more expensive.

The health department charges only the cost of the vaccine, about $20 a dose. Senior citizens are covered under Medicare and children get it for free, as the tab is picked up by the federal government, he said.

Across the nation, health care officials this year are placing a greater emphasis on immunizing healthy babies and children and are urging parents to contact pediatricians to administer the inoculations.

The Centers for Disease Control's Web site states that vaccinations are most effective when administered in the fall because it typically takes two weeks until the vaccine becomes effective. The CDC urges health care providers to offer flu shots to patients during regular medical visits throughout the season.

The CDC has provided a list of those at highest risk of contracting the flu:

*Children 6 to 59 months old.

*Children and adults 5 through 64 years old with chronic diseases such as asthma, heart disease or diabetes or with muscle or nerve disorders.

*People 65 or older.

*Women who are pregnant.

*People with compromised immune systems, such as HIV/AIDS patients, those undergoing cancer treatments or who are on long-term steroid therapy.

*Long-term care facility residents.

*Children 6 months to 18 years of age on aspirin therapy.

*Health care workers.

Others at risk include:

*Community service workers.

*International travelers.

*Household contacts of a high-risk person.

*Caregivers of babies younger than 6 months.

The flu is caused by a virus that spreads from an infected person to the noses and throats of others, according to the CDC Web site. Anyone can get the flu, but rates are highest among children. Most only suffer for a few days, exhibiting symptoms that include fever, sore throat, chills, fatigue, coughing, headaches and muscle aches.

But some people can get much sicker. The flu can lead to pneumonia and can be dangerous for people with heart or breathing conditions and can cause high fever and seizures in children.

On average, 226,000 people are hospitalized every year because of influenza, and 36,000, mostly elderly patients, die from complications caused by the flu.

There are two types of influenza vaccine, the CDC says: the inactivated vaccine, which is given by injection into the muscle, and the live attenuated influenza vaccine, the kind that is sprayed into the nostrils. For a vaccine information fact sheet, go online to http://immunize.org/vis/2flu.pdf.

Influenza viruses constantly are changing, and because of this, vaccines are changed each year. The vaccine can last up to a year, but changes in the virus typically require new vaccines on an annual schedule.

Some vaccines contain a trace of mercury and have raised concerns that the immunizations caused developmental problems in children. But in 2004, the Institute of Medicine published a research report that concluded there was no such evidence of a relationship between the vaccine and child developmental issues.

Anyone with concerns about this should ask their doctors about an available vaccine that is free of thimerosal, the compound that contains trace amounts of mercury.

Meanwhile in Brandon, the seniors continued to parade through the tiny side room. Jack Nichols, toothpick hanging from the corner of his mouth, waited until a small Band-Aid was slapped on his arm.

Another year, another flu shot, said the 77-year-old Brandon retiree.

"It's not the quantity of life," he said. "It's the quality."