During the current COVID-19 pandemic, inpatient health care services could be severely strained as the number of cases increases. Flu vaccination can help reduce the burden of illness in winter and protect at-risk individuals. Vaccination is recommended for chronically ill patients with an increased risk of complications and their regular contacts, as well as for all health professionals.
In Switzerland, 100,000 to more than 300,000 people consult a doctor every winter because of an influenza-like illness. Vaccination remains the simplest, most effective and most economical preventive measure to protect oneself and one’s environment from influenza and its complications. More vaccine doses will be available in 2020 than in previous years to meet the expected increased demand. However, some of the cans will not arrive in Switzerland until the end of the year. Therefore, the recommended period for vaccination is from mid-October and until the beginning of the flu season. In most winters, the flu epidemic begins in January.
Who should get vaccinated?
Vaccination is recommended for individuals at increased risk of complications. This includes all persons over 65 years of age and persons 6 months of age or older with certain chronic diseases (overview 1). In addition, pregnant women from the 2nd trimester of pregnancy and women who have given birth in the last 4 weeks should be vaccinated. This also applies to premature babies (born before 33 weeks or with a birth weight below 1500 g) from the age of 6 months for the first two winters after birth. A vaccination recommendation is also available for patients in nursing homes and in institutions for persons with chronic diseases. Health care workers and others who have close contact with at-risk individuals or live in the same household with them should also consider influenza vaccination (overview 2).
Safety is rated as high
Since 1945, several billion doses of vaccine have been administered worldwide. All influenza vaccines currently used in Switzerland are inactivated. Thus, they do not contain infectious viruses that can cause influenza, but only the antigens of three influenza virus strains currently in circulation (one strain each of the A/H1N1, A/H3N2, and influenza B viruses).
The most common side effect is a mild local reaction at the injection site. It occurs in 10-40% of vaccinated individuals and resolves after a few hours or a maximum of two days. General mild symptoms such as fever, nausea, muscle aches, joint pain, headache, and other flu symptoms occur in 5-10% of vaccinated individuals. Severe allergic reactions such as angioedema, asthma, or anaphylaxis are very rare (<1 in 10,000 vaccinated individuals). They can generally be explained by hypersensitivity to the proteins of the chicken egg. Adverse neurological phenomena, such as Guillain-Barré syndrome, are also very rare.
Source: Infovac.ch: “Flu (Influenza)”, as of Information: 09/28/2020, www.infovac.ch/de/impfunge/nach-krankheiten-geordnet/grippe, last accessed 10/13/2020.
HAUSARZT PRAXIS 2020; 15(10): 44 (published 10/26/20, ahead of print).
