Mon, September 14, 2009
Risk Management Advice: Get Your Flu Shots, Including H1N1
I don’t often write this sort of advice, but here’s my household risk management recommendation for the Fall: get your flu shots.
Personal risk management most often includes things like having adequate property, life, and health insurance. These provide some safeguards against unexpected events that are entirely out of our control. But another way you can manage your personal risks is by doing as much as you can to stay healthy.
Seasonal flu is something that most healthy people ignore. When I got married, I promised my wife, who has a chronic pulmonary condition, that I would get a flu shot every year. Before that, I’d never gotten a flu shot and never gave it much thought. I’d never gotten influenza, so it seemed like a remote risk. The fact is that in an average year, 200,000 people are hospitalized for seasonal flu and 36,000 die from it. Few people alive today remember the flu epidemic of 1918, which is estimated to have killed 50 million people worldwide, but such outbreaks do occur from time to time.
Even with lesser strains of flu, those who get the disease will suffer lost time at work and increased stress in their family life. This year, there are already a number of cases of H1N1 in the southeastern and northwestern US; the effects of the disease are being felt even before the traditional flu season has arrived.
So far, the H1N1 (so-called “swine flu”) does not appear to be as virulent as the 1918 flu, but health officials have been surprised by the prevalence of H1N1 infections among young people and children. It makes sense to reduce your risk of influenza by taking advantage of the flu vaccinations that will be available soon.
The initial target groups for H1N1 vaccination are pregnant women, caregivers of infants, health-care professionals and EMS workers, people ages 6 months to 24, and high-risk people 25 to 64 years old. Here in Massachusetts, these categories encompass half the population. If you live in the Bay State, you can use the Masspro Flu Clinic web site to find a flu clinic near you or ask your family physician if the vaccination is available.
If you live elsewhere, check your state’s Department of Public Health web site. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have a helpful list explaining who should (and who should not) get a flu shot.
The US Department of Health and Human Services provides a useful household checklist of items to keep on hand in the event of an influenza outbreak. The Centers for Disease Control also have a web page with frequent updates on H1N1.
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