Cowbridge and Vale Medical Practice

Dr J C Jemmett & Partners

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Flu Clinic Dates

If you believe you are 'at risk', please telephone the surgery to confirm. See below for further details.

You are at risk if you have one of the following problems:

Diabetes

Asthma or COPD

Chronic Heart Disease

Chronic Renal Disease

Immunosuppressed due to disease or treatment (e.g. Cancer, Chemotherapy, Azathioprine)

Chronic Liver Disease

Stroke / TIA

Asplenia

Multiple Sclerosis

Cystic Fibrosis

Over 65 (before 31^st March 2010)

PLEASE INFORM YOUR DOCTOR IF YOU HAVE AN ALLERGY TO EGG

Who is at Risk?

Anyone can catch flu but there are particular "at-risk" groups for whom flu could be particularly dangerous. These include anyone with heart problems, lung or kidney disease, diabetics, patients with a weak immune system due to drugs or disease and all those living in long stay residential accommodation where influenza once introduced may spread rapidly.

In the general population, children and the elderly are particularly susceptible but the latter are more severely affected and experience a higher death rate, particularly during pandemics.

Prevention of Flu

Flu is a serious disease which can be prevented by vaccination. This vaccination is subject to recommendations that are specific to each country in Europe.

In the UK, the Department of Health recommend annual influenza immunisation for adults aged 65 and over or younger people with any of the following conditions :

Chronic ( ie long term) respiratory disease, including asthma patients who are prescribed inhaled steroids
Chronic heart disease
Chronic renal failure
Diabetes mellitus
Suppressed immunity due to disease including absence of the spleen or a deficiency in the function of the spleen
Suppressed immunity due to medical treatment

In the Autumn, a national campaign is run, offering flu vaccination to help protect people who are at risk of serious illness should they catch flu.

What is Influenza?

Influenza, commonly called flu, is a viral infection which first attacks the respiratory system. Typical symptoms include: a sudden onset of high fever with chills, a cough, sore throat, weakness (lethargy), muscle aches (myalgia) in the back, arms or legs. Often the headache is made worse by moving the eyes. Flu is very debilitating and the sufferer will have to go to bed. The attack lasts for around seven days. Following flu infection many sufferers are tired and feel unwell for several weeks.

Influenza is highly infectious. It has an incubation period of 1-3 days and can spread very quickly. Epidemics are almost impossible to predict, and when they do happen they can be associated with a large number of deaths especially in the elderly. Even when the reported incidence of flu is low, many thousands of deaths may be attributed directly or indirectly to influenza in Europe each winter.

There are many different strains of flu virus and the strains frequently change which means that following one infection the individual is not necessarily protected against future attacks. The changes are of two types. The virus type can "drift" which means that it changes only slightly or it can "shift" which means that it has changed significantly. When a shift happens there is often a world-wide epidemic called a pandemic. As a result of this risk from influenza, a world-wide surveillance system has been set up to monitor the emergence of new strains. This allows manufacturers of flu vaccine to be able to include those strains that are most likely to be active during each flu season. Even in non-epidemic years in the UK there are 3 - 4000 deaths annually attributable to flu.

Complications of Flu

In a small proportion of cases serious complications can follow flu. The most common complication is a secondary infection with bacteria or viruses causing pneumonia which can be fatal. Other complications include inflammation of the heart muscle or the brain. Influenza can also aggravate underlying chronic disease. Studies have shown that following epidemics of influenza caused by the type A strains of the virus, deaths from all registered causes can increase.

PLEASE INFORM YOUR DOCTOR OF AN EGG ALLERGY

Epidemics
There are two main types of flu virus responsible for human epidemics - the A and B types. It is type A which is more likely to change in the way described (drift) and is the usual cause of epidemics. If the number of flu cases in a population reaches 400/100,000 this is regarded as an epidemic. Influenza type A tends to cause more severe infections than influenza type B.

Pandemics
A pandemic is caused by a major change or " shift" in the type A virus. It is defined as when influenza affects a high proportion of the global population. Pandemics of the last century occurred in 1918, 1957 and 1968. The ( Spanish) pandemic of 1918 had a dramatic effect on the world's population in that at least 20 million people died worldwide. In England and Wales alone it was responsible for 200,000 deaths. The impact on death rates was so severe that it decreased average life expectancy by 10 years.

Transmission
Flu is spread from person to person by infected droplets, which are secreted from the respiratory tract of an infected person. These infected droplets are dispersed by coughing, sneezing or talking. A single infected person can transmit virus to a large number of susceptible individuals. Humans are the main sources of influenza infection but it is known that horses, pigs and birds can harbour and spread the virus to man. For example, the Hong Kong flu of 1997 originated in chickens.

Treatment of Flu

Antiviral medicines are available on prescription and they reduce the severity and duration of the illness. Generally these drugs should be taken within the first 48 hrs of onset of the symptoms of flu.