You may or may not know it, but the flu shot is not one of those vaccines that you can just get once or twice and be in the all-clear. Many immunizations for other serious illnesses work that way, but the flu shot is not one of them.
No, sadly, in order to stay protected from the flu you have to get a new vaccination each and every year. And if you understand why that is, it may help to motivate you into getting the shot, which is your best defense against this disabling illness.
Why Annual Flu Vaccine?
There are many, many viruses that cause influenza, more commonly known as the flu. In addition, the flu is not a static virus – it changes and mutates with almost frightening frequency. That means that this year’s flu is hardly ever the same as next year’s flu, or the flu’s that came before it for that matter.
Basically, there are a couple of factors at work here: the ability of the flu viruses each to mutate into a new or changed strain of the flu, and the sheer abundance of different influenza germs. Every year, we are at risk for different flu viruses and new ones, too.
What that means is that basically, every year, researchers and healthcare officials are starting from scratch to develop an effective flu vaccine to get us through the season to come. They’re very good at it, too.
Officials, healthcare providers, and researchers are constantly monitoring the germs that are causing flu infections, and are constantly collecting data to determine which strains and viruses are most likely to cause wide-spread flu infections in the year and years ahead. They compile this data to decide which strains of new and old flu viruses should be defended against and concoct a new flu shot for every flu season, one that is tailored specifically to the flu’s that are ready to attack.
This is the first reason why you need a new flu shot every year – because the flu shots you may have had in the past simply were not designed to protect you from the flu that you are likely to face in upcoming months. But there is one other reason, too, and that is the race against time.
Over time, the effectiveness of any flu immunization begins to diminish. You are at the highest level of effectiveness and protection against strains that you have been vaccinated for during the first 6 months after flu vaccination. From 6 months onward, your body’s immunity is in decline. In other words, it doesn’t last forever, and so even though you may have, at some point in the past, been immunized against an anticipated strain, odds are your immunity is not there any longer. You need a new flu shot to revitalize that immunity and put you back in the strongest line of defense.
It would be nice if one flu shot could last us forever, but it cannot. After all, it is only a few moments to protect yourself each year from what could be weeks of illness, so best to resign yourself to it, save yourself a lot of misery and pain, and prepare yourself again each and every year.
Mary Ward blogs about how to discover the best ADN to BSN online programs.
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