Healthy Living: Do you have a cold or the flu?
If you are prone to catch the bug, there are many ways to prevent it or to deal with this influenza. But first there is a difference between the common cold and the flu. Healthy Living looks this week at this virus that makes your life downright sickening.
Marleni Cuellar, Reporting
As the Christmas season nears and the temperature lowers in Belize, for many of us we know that the onset of the coughing, sniffling and sneezing may be right around the corner. But before you whip out the cold medicine, understanding your symptoms would need to be the first step. According to Pediatrician at the Belize Medical Associates, Dr. Victor Rosado, the difference between the cold and the flu is the severity of the symptoms.
Dr. Victor Rosado, Pediatrician
“A flu is caused by an influenza virus. A cold is caused by another type of virus called rhinovirus or adenovirus. The flu is more severe in terms of symptoms, a high fever, severe sore throat, body aches and cold usually just have a cough and scratchy throat and runny nose. So the flu is much more severe.”
As a result of these severe symptoms, the flu can even affect our productivity at home and at work.
Dr. Victor Rosado
“The flu is responsible for having to take days off from work and you’ll probably be in bed for two to three days, I can say because of high fevers and body aches. Most people having a cold you can still function. ”
But while some people can recover from a flu without problems, at times the influenza virus can lead to more serious complications like pneumonia or it can make those who are already sick a lot worse. There is one means of prevention that doctors are recommending to ward-off the influenza virus: getting a flu shot. The flu shot is a vaccine that is administered to reduce your chances of catching the flu.
Dr. Victor Rosado
“It works no different like any other vaccine, no different than the vaccines that we give our babies at two and four and six months. The whole concept behind a vaccination is that you use an attenuated or inactivated viruses meaning that the virus that we use in the flu shot can never give you the flu. That virus has been killed but we need the membrane of the virus to fool your body and so your body can make antibodies and that’s the whole concept behind a vaccine.”
Because the flu virus changes rapidly, the vaccine is developed based on the most common types of viruses for that particular year. And who should get flu shot? Anyone really, but it is recommended for several high risk groups. Including children from six months to eighteen years due to their densely populated environment at school, elder persons, persons with chronic ailments, like asthma, sickle cell anemia, heart disease, diabetes and kidney failure. Also, health care workers and those who work in nursing homes and persons who have weak immune systems are also recommended to get the shot. These are all persons who when they do get the flu, experience more severe symptoms or run the risk of transmitting the flu virus to someone else.
Dr. Victor Rosado
“I like to say vaccinations are like insurance. You never know when you’re going to use them or when you’re going to need them but you can’t come when you’re catching the flu and ask for a flu shot. That’s a mistake that many people make. The flu shot will not help you if you’re having a flu you need to have it at least two weeks before.”
I want to reduce the risk of getting the severe fly symptoms so I have opted to take a flu shot for the first time. Although Dr. Rosado’s patients are typically much younger than I am, he has offered to give me the prescription I need to get my shot. A prescription is necessary to purchase the flu shot. The vaccine costs fifty-five dollars and can be administered by your own family physician or a nurse.
Marleni Cuellar
“Equipped with my flu shot, I head back to the doctor.”
Dr. Victor Rosado
“The procedure is simple. It’s an intra muscular shot. Side effects of the vaccines, most of the times like most other vaccines, some soreness in the site of the injection and maybe a low grade fever for the first twelve to twenty-four hours. I would like to stress that the vaccine cannot give you the flu because it’s an inactivated or a killed virus that we are utilizing. So it is impossible for the flu shot to give you the flu.”
The procedure was quick and painless like Dr. Rosado assured me. What’s most important is that within the next two weeks my body should have developed the protection it needs to ward off the worse symptoms of this years flu.
Here are some things for you to keep in mind if you decide to get a flu shot:
Get a prescription to purchase the vaccine which can be administered by a nurse or your family physician. The cost of the shot is fifty-five dollars which is considerably less than a doctor’s visit and medication. If you do get the flu, the symptoms should be milder and your risk for complications would have decreased. You cannot get the shot when you are already have the flu. Remember the shot lasts for one year. The choice is yours.
