It’s been a busy day today – we had a couple of appointments up town. And during a visit to the local health centre I spotted a notice saying that the flu vaccine was available. The nurse had free spaces available – we could get ours right away, we were told. And why not – that would save another visit back.
So it was just a matter of filling out the consent form, answering a couple of questions, and the nurse administered our flu jabs. And it didn’t hurt a bit. It’s good to know that not only will we be protected, we are also helping to stop the spread of flu.
Flu vaccines are designed to protect against the main flu viruses that research suggests will be the most common during the upcoming season. Three kinds of flu viruses commonly circulate among people today: influenza A (H1N1) viruses, influenza A (H3N2) viruses, and influenza B viruses. Influenza can be a serious illness that is sometimes fatal or may lead to a stay in hospital for any age group but particularly if you are elderly or have an ongoing medical condition. Here in New Zealand the flu vaccine is provided free of charge to those over 65, or others with a chronic health problem.
2 comments:
Health Authorities here in Australia have advised to wait until the new vaccine is available, it's running late & not available until late April. Reason is that the existing vaccine will not cover new strains of flu. Maybe NZ have that new vaccine. I will check with my GP this week as it's also free for over 65 yo or those with medical conditions eg cancer.
We’re actually just having a bad run of the flu here even though it’s almost spring. I’m glad we got our flu shots in the fall. I just got the shingles vaccine. Ouch. :-)
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