When to Get Your Flu Shot

By Doug Donaldson

While most people think about influenza when the weather first turns cold, the flu season peaks between January and March. A shot takes two weeks to become effective, so you can still reap the benefits if you get a shot in late winter.            

That’s especially good advice for those with cardiovascular disease because they’re more likely to die from influenza than those with any other chronic condition, according to the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC).  Yet only one in three adults with cardiovascular disease received a flu vaccination in 2005, even though the annual shot (which changes each year to counter the different flu strains) can prevent death in those who have heart trouble.

“If we vaccinated at least 60 percent of the 13.2 million people with coronary heart disease in the United States against influenza, we could prevent hundreds of deaths and thousands of cases of flu each year,” says Matthew M. Davis, M.D., lead author of the advisory and associate professor of pediatrics, internal medicine, and public policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “The target goal set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is to vaccinate 60 percent of people with heart disease under age 65, and 90 percent of everyone 65 and over, many of whom have heart disease.”

The AHA and ACC recommend an annual flu shot for those with cardiovascular disease and have suggested that cardiologists stock vaccinations to make the shot a part of a regular checkup before and during flu season. One caution: Patients with cardiovascular disease should not get the nasal-spray flu vaccine. The live vaccine in the spray may actually cause influenza among those with heart disease. Need more info? Click here to visit the (AHA) web page.