Beware the Flu Pandemic: To Vaccinate or Not? [The debate surrounding adult vaccines]

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Coughing, fever, chills, delirium, exhaustion: about a month ago my husband was as sick as I’ve ever seen him. He’s normally a really healthy guy and at worst gets a bad head cold a couple of times a year. Plus the odd stomach bug – with four germ-toting tots at home, the vomits are inevitable every year. But this time was different. After watching him worsen for several days (and listening to him hallucinate feverishly at night), I finally took him to emergency care. He could barely sit up on his own as we waited for the doctor. After running several tests, the verdict came back: Influenza, type A. He had the flu?? I was shocked. Thanks to my obsession with “After the Dancing Days” (I swear I read that book 20 times in fifth grade) I’m sadly well versed in the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic – it killed over 25 million people, ten times the number of casualties in World War I and was remarkable for mainly targeting the healthiest people between 16-40 years old while leaving infants and the elderly alive. Yet I was still surprised by the extent of my husband’s illness. I guess I’d never really seen the flu in the flesh before. At least not like this.

After confirming influenza, the doctor gave us two unhappy pieces of news: First, there was nothing to do for it but keep him comfortable and keep a close eye on his symptoms (Tamiflu only works if given right at the onset of flu). And second, similar to the 1918 flu, this year’s strains seem to also hit the young and healthy the hardest. He mentioned several patients on life support because of the flu, all of them young, healthy adults. Then the doctor eyed my children and I. “How are you guys feeling?” he asked pointedly.

Fine as sunshine. We’d all had the flu shot this year. And thankfully it seemed to be a good match, at least in our case, as the rest of us haven’t got so much as a sniffle despite the flu being highly contagious. Heck I even kissed him on the lips while he was sick. This was the first time I’ve been able to really see just what the vaccine was protecting us from. I’ll be honest, it kind of shook me. My husband was so, so sick. In the past I’ve been pretty lackadaisical about getting the flu shot. This year I only got it because I happened to be in my doctor’s office for my heart stuff and the nurse was like “You want to get a flu shot while you’re waiting?”. I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to get one. But I’m glad I did.

But vaccines are far from as simple as one anecdote.

Wanna start a fight on the Internet? It used to be you could just throw out something simple like “breast is best!” or “cardio is a waste of time!” or “Miley Cyrus” and just sit back and watch the flame-darts fly. But today it seems like the fastest way to get people all riled up is to talk about vaccines – which makes some sense since unlike breastfeeding, cardio and twerking, vaccination can be a life or death matter. (Now if you’re breastfeeding while twerking on the treadmill then maybe…) A recent article floating around the Internet “Growing Up Un-vaccinated” has become the lightning rod for all of the feelings.

In the piece Amy Parker describes how she was raised by “hippie health nuts” who were very against vaccinating. After explaining her super healthy childhood – she was fed only natural, local, organic foods; played outside; no sugar; she wasn’t even allowed to wear “plastic shoes” – she confesses that what happened next seemed to make no sense:

As healthy as my lifestyle seemed, I contracted measles, mumps, rubella, a type of viral meningitis, scarlatina, whooping cough, yearly tonsillitis, and chickenpox, some of which are vaccine preventable. In my twenties I got precancerous HPV and spent 6 months of my life wondering how I was going to tell my two children under the age of 7 that mummy might have cancer before it was safely removed.

I got so many illnesses which needed treatment with antibiotics that I developed a resistance to them, which led me to be hospitalized with penicillin-resistant quinsy at 21–you know that old fashioned disease that killed Queen Elizabeth I and which was almost wiped out through use of antibiotics. [Charlotte’s note: I had to look up quinsy after this dramatic story! It’s pus pockets on the backs of your tonsils. According to most sources it seems Queen Elizabeth I died of blood poisoning and depression but apparently George Washington may have died of quinsy! Okay I’m done geeking out. You’re welcome for all that useless trivia you did not ask for.)

But once Parker realized that she might have been spared two decades of agony had her parents gotten her her shots, she got angry and decided to use her story to rebut the many anti-vaccine anecdotes out there.

“Anecdotal evidence is nothing to base decisions on. But when facts and evidence-based science aren’t good enough to sway someone’s opinion, then this is where I come from. After all, anecdotes are the anti-vaccine supporter’s way. Well, this is my personal experience. And my personal experience prompts me to vaccinate my children and myself.”

Parker makes an interesting point. First, because of the way vaccines work, you don’t often hear of the “success” stories. If they’re doing their job then nothing changes at all. Even if not everyone in a population is vaccinated, as long as most of them are then the “herd immunity” protects everyone. Second, because it’s generally parents making the choices for their young children, you don’t often hear the perspective of the kids.

Yet I was surprised when Jezebel reprinted the article (which quickly garnered over a million likes and shot up to be one of their most popular articles) how many commenters said things like not vaccinating your kids is tantamount to child abuse and “anti-vaxxers” should have their kids taken away. And those were just the nice comments. Others said the parents deserved to die or be put in jail. Still others said it vaccination should be made mandatory by law. Several commenters pointed out that people who don’t vaccinate unnecessarily put others with weakened immune systems, who can’t be vaccinated, in grave danger. If there were any dissenting voices, they were quickly shouted down.

Compare that to a parenting group I follow where not vaccinating is the norm and and I’ve seen moms compare vaccination to Nazi eugenics. (It’s not an Internet argument until somebody lays the Nazi trump card!) They are every bit as sure that their position is the correct one and just as willing to attack someone for having an alternate view.

Me personally, while I enjoy a lively debate, I hate flame wars and so I’m not even going to touch the topic of child immunization*. What I’m more interested in here are the “optional” vaccines for adults. In addition to flu shots we’ve all probably had the experience of stepping on a nail or needing stitches and having to get the obligatory tetanus shot. But did you know that apparently we’re all supposed to get MMR boosters after 18 years old? The CDC has a handy quiz to tell you what vaccines you need now, as an adult, even if you were vaccinated as a kid.

But do we really need them? I’ll admit to thinking that since I’ve already had chicken pox as a kid (and have the scars on my forehead to prove it!) and I had all my shots then that I probably don’t need anymore. But perhaps this is hubris. Up until this year I was also on the fence about the flu shot.

The conversation about vaccines is different as an adult. We’re making the choices for ourselves rather than having our parents force us to align with their views. We’re not at risk for developing autism and if we have any allergies we likely know about them by now so the worries about side effects are lessened. (Not saying that autism is a side effect of immunizations rather that people worry about autism and that worry doesn’t apply to adults.) And unless you work in the military or certain branches of healthcare, we also don’t have to have the shots to go to work or school. There’s a lot less pressure for grown-ups to get their shots in general. Plus, healthy living communities – both online and in real life – tend to focus more on building the immune system through proper nutrition, exercise, sunshine, probiotics and the like. In some circles getting a vaccine is like saying you’ve just given up.

But the flu shot is a whole other animal. This year the CDC is warning that the main virulent strain H1N1 (remember that one? The swine flu went pandemic in 2009.) is going to see a sharp uptick in the coming month. At the moment it’s shy of a pandemic but Christmas Eve they released a health alert saying that with many states reporting high levels of flu activity it could get worse quickly. They also add that “for the 2013-14 season, if pH1N1 virus continues to circulate widely, illness that disproportionately affects young and middle-aged adults may occur.”

If you want to know more about conditions where you live, Google Flu Trends has a live updating map that shows high flu activity in North America and Spain with lower numbers in Europe and South America. Even if you don’t care about the shots the interactive map is pretty cool to play with! I love technology.

Science writer Tara Haelle wrote a great piece “Setting the Record Straight: Debunking All the Flu Vaccine Myths” that goes through all the common questions and arguments about the flu vaccine. While other sites like WebMD have done similar, I like Haelle’s piece because she links all of her sources (over 100 of them!) and most are peer-reviewed, scientific studies. No anecdotal stuff here. I also love science.

In the end, Parker sums up her story saying she chose to get the flu shot because, “I was so freaking crunchy that I literally crumbled. It was only when I took control of those paranoid thoughts and fears about the world around me and became an objective critical thinker that I got well. It was when I stopped taking sugar pills for everything and started seeing medical professionals that I began to thrive physically and mentally.”

Obviously people have a lot of strong feelings on this subject and I’m not telling you that you should get vaccinated because that’s the choice I made for myself. But I’m super interested in hearing your opinions! Do you get the flu shot? Does the “pandemic warning” change your mind at all or do you see it as hype? What about other adult vaccines – do you get them?

*If you are curious, all of my children are vaccinated fully and on schedule. They also usually get the flu shot every year.

38 Comments

  1. I have always gotten the flu shot…and I have my adult boosters for other things as well!

    My thoughts are that this prevents death and misery…much like keeping break fluid in your car instead of say…tossing out an anchor to try to slow down.

    There is a long list of illnesses that went the way of the wooley mammoth because of vaccinations…which are now beginning to reappear in pockets where herds of people refuse to vaccinate.

    An interesting lesson while working as a lumberjack at the ripe old age of 17…the snow ON the trees land on YOU while you are cutting the trees.

    And after doing this all day…you are soaked.

    Next…while walking log laid across a bend in the river, I slipped and fell through the ice.

    (I came out MUCH faster than I went in…THAT was COLD!)

    Dragging my soggy self to the mouth of the river…I tried to look across the lake to the town.

    But the interesting thing about a lake in the winter in a blinding snowstorm…all you see is white.

    So I slog soggily through deepening snow with my head down praying that I emerge somewhere near the town and that I actually walk in a straight line without looking.

    Having to travel some miles…five to be exact…it was quite the herculean effort at that point.

    When I finally made it back to my abode…my clothes were so frozen they could stand up by themselves…so I leaned them in the corner and went to bed.

    I got phenomena.

    I…

    …didn’t like it….

    Note to self at that time: Avoid any variation of this sickness or anything like unto it in the future.

    Hence: Flu shots.

  2. Obvs I cannot spell when tired.

    Above should read: I got pneumonia.

  3. Thanks so much for writing this! I live in Oregon. According to our local paper, the Oregonian, seven people have already died in Portland from the flu this season, including two people in their 30s and 40s. H1N1, the flu that’s hitting hard this year, is the same as in 1918, when it also hit younger people hard (unlike most flus, which typically hit older folks, babies, and those with compromised immune systems). The paper also reported that the flu is hitting a lot earlier than usual.

    I think many of us grew up referring to bad colds as “the flu,” so we don’t always know what a really bad flu is like. Let’s hope more of us don’t learn.

  4. I am an ICU nurse in a town with 20,000 people. But already I have seen a death from an under 59 year old healthy male most likely caused by the “Swine flu” and I know that we just got an admission to the small ICU yesterday from a healthy 40 year old person who probably has the flu. I also worked in the ICU when the Swine Flu was going pandemic a few years ago. It killed one of the 20 year old gals and almost killed another 20 year old gal. There is nothing to compare to it, it is a horrid sickness. I would vaccinate.

  5. This vaccinating your kids thing is one thing I am glad I don’t have to worry about! No kids here. I know the arguments are heated, so I am relieved to just stay out of it. My cats are fully vaccinated, though! As for me… I have gotten vaccines as an adult because I went to college and I know I needed several shots for that… meningitis and the like. I have never gotten the flu shot. It seem ridiculous because I’m a teacher and I’m around children all day, but I just don’t do it. I’ll either 1. Never get the flu. or 2. Eventually get the flu, and then get vaccinated because I will never want to relive the experience!

  6. I’ve never received a flu shot but my parents get it every year. It’s just one of those things I never think about.

    I’m going to Bali later this year (Yay) and will be getting preventative shots/medicines (Rabies and Malaria and whatever else the doctor recommends).

    Thanks for the Google Flu Trends link – is there anything google doesn’t do ? I’ve now bookmarked it 🙂 Australia is currently green – no flu here. Our flu season is 6 months behind though so that will change by mid year.

  7. I love this site – you can see flu trends by year in different regions. So much for an early night !

    Did you play with the google earth plug-in ? That is very cool and breaks flu activity down to state level in the US.

  8. ahhh this is the first year I have not.
    and now?
    Im wondering if I mightcould later be fraught with regret.

    • Miz…its not too late!

      They just reopened the flu clinics here in Canada…after several people died in a variety of provinces….to give more people the opportunity. So health officials obviously believe it is till worth it.

  9. Never have gotten a flu shot. I had the flu in October/November. Symptoms lasted a long time. I felt like crap. But I would NOT get the flu shot. IMO, if you are unvaccinated as a child, but decide to be vaccinated as an adult, that is your choice. I’ve heard stories and know people who have been harmed in some way by vaccinations.

  10. I work in health care so being fully up to date on my vaccines is part of the job. I got the MMR booster and I’ve had the flu shot every year since I was 15 or 16. The importance of this was driven home to me in 2009, when a popular professor at my University became sick on a Monday with H1N1 and was dead by the Thursday, leaving behind three children and a wife. To me, the cost-benefit analysis for vaccines is a no-brainer.

  11. I used to get vaccinated as a kid every year, it wasn’t until I got allergy tested that we figured out why I felt like crap, broke out in hives and got sick every time shortly after I got vaccinated – egg allergy! Now granted it’s not a bad violent allergy I CAN eat eggs in small doses but apparently injecting a live vaccine is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. Is it worth it? I would get sick with a flu every year as a kid even vaccinated – more than likely because the shot weakened my immune system from the allergy. Since about the age of 12 I haven’t been vaccinated, except for one year in my mid twenties where a nurse got so insistent and pushy and said “oh if you’re allergic to eggs just wait here after your shot for 5 minutes and you’ll be fine!” Then followed it with “see I told you” about a week or two later I took 4 days off work. To me personally it isn’t worth it, “unvaccinated” I’ve only gotten the odd tummy bug during the off flu seasons and actually really sick once. *fingers crossed* !!

    • The nurse had no business ignoring your allergy. IN fact…they are supposed to ask and make certain that you do not have an egg allergy…and offer you an alternative mixture with no egg if one is available.

  12. Such an interesting conversation. I have reacted to flu shots in the past and had stopped getting them. No, I’m not allergic to eggs, I just am really sensitive and would miss work. I’m special. And then I got the flu in 2009. I thought I was dying it sucked so bad. So I have gotten it since then. I did get the flu last year, but it wasn’t nearly as bad, and I made it through a cruise without getting sick. I also get my flu shot later than most people. Had a nurse once tell me that it is better a bit later (Not sure if that’s true or not), so I just got my shot this weekend. I’m heading to Canada in a few weeks, and the flu is really bad there. I want to hedge my bets.

    With regards to other adult vaccinations . . . I have traveled for work in areas that needed every adult booster you can think of. Again, I reacted to one of them badly (highly sensitive person here) but my doctors and I were ready for that. It was very eye opening that I needed a polio booster. I didn’t realize it hadn’t been completely eradicated. My next conversation with them will be about the Shingles vaccine. I had Shingles when I was in high school (yea that sucked too); watching my elderly family members deal with it though, that’s been eye opening.

    Last and final thought – I can’t imagine as parents having to sort through information and make the best choices (you guys have a lot to handle). I can tell you, that my parents struggled when i was small child whether or not to give me allergy shots. Mom’s fear (in her own words) “I worried I was teaching you to reach for a needle to feel better.” But I was so sick, I had pneumonia 5 times by the time I was 3, bad asthma, and horrible allergies. They had a good doctor whose goal was to get me healthy and off of shots. It was a weaning process that took several years; but I felt so much better. Recognizing my high sensitivity however they did give me my childhood vaccinations in partial doses. (my records look way funny 1/4 dose of this; 1/2 dose of that).

    Wow – I had way more to say than I thought. Sorry for mad ramblings!

  13. This is the first year in awhile that I haven’t gotten the flu shot. I used to volunteer in the oncology playroom at Denver’s Children’s Hospital so I had to get the shot. This year, my kids and husband all got the shot but I decided not to. Last year, we all got the shot and we all got influenza B. Years ago, we all got the shot and wound up with swine flu. I guess I feel like the shot doesn’t really do much and I almost never get sick anyway. (Of course, since I just boasted about this I am surely jinxing myself). Reading your post and the comments though, I am feeling a bit nervous about my decision…….

  14. Hi Heather!

    I explored the process…and they do a “best guess” about what the three or so predominant strains will be for the coming flu season…and that is what they place in the vaccines for that year.

    Hence…getting influenza “B”…because it is not in the shot…and getting swine flu…when it is not in the shot.

    People mostly get sick when the shot prepared doesn’t cover the predominant strains completely for that season.

    No one flu shot covers ALL options. So they make an educated guess.

    Being human, they sometimes guess wrong.

    But THIS year…they did get it right. Swine Flu is in this yeseasons shot.

  15. I’ve gotten the flu shot every year for the last 5 years or so. It’s offered to teachers here free through our insurance and I’ve never had any side effects. I’m not sure I’ve ever had the “true flu” either. I’ve definitely been sick but not vomiting, feverish, and whatnot. More just colds here and there.

    As for the other shots, I know I got a tetanus booster three years ago when it was also offered free through school but I never thought about an MMR booster. Certainly something to ask my doctor about next time I go though!

  16. My husband is a type I diabetic which means, among other things, his immune system is weaker. It’s really bad if I bring something serious home to him, like the flu. So I get the flu shot with him every year and the friends and family we spend a lot of time with generally do too. It’s scary because he’s a young, fit guy and to look at him you wouldn’t think his immune system was compromised, yet it is and any illness can throw his blood sugar completely out of control.

    This year I decided to go for the nasal mist because the shot tends to give me extreme muscle soreness for days. But I got a runny, stuffy nose (which is normal) from it so next year I’m trying the subdermal shot, which apparently doesn’t have the same soreness issues as the intramuscular shot.

    I also am up on all my shots/boosters because I work in biological (including vaccine) research and it’s required. I was in rural Asia a few years ago so I’m vaccinated against some weird things too. I’m kind of glad my jobs do all the work for me in making sure I’m caught up on everything because I know I would drag my feet doing it myself but I think it’s really important.

  17. Jessica Fletcher-Fierro

    I never get the flu shot, but not out of principle…because I don’t think about it and I’ve never had the flu. I am a middle school teacher, so I probably should, but it’s just one more thing to get to. BUT, I am pregnant right now, so reading this has made me think I need to go get it NOW. I’m a little nervous, just because I know it can make people feel sick when they get the shot, but it seems worth that small risk. So thanks for this post!

  18. We get the flu shot every year and get it for our daughter as soon as it comes out. When I was pregnant, I made everyone who would come in contact with the baby get vaccinated for whooping cough. Like I tell our doctor, if there’s a vaccine for it, I want it. When I interviewed our pediatrician, I even asked him if he had patients who refused vaccine for their children b/c there was no way I was going to bring my baby in if there was a chance of her being around someone who had pertussis, measles, etc. I don’t understand people who take chances with their kids’ lives by not getting them vaccinated. I would not want to live with myself if I knew I could’ve prevented my child from getting a deadly disease w/ a simple shot but instead chose to trust someone like Jenny McCarthy w/ my child’s health and well-being.

  19. I got influenza A last year. I. Was. SICK. My incredibly healthy, never even gets a cold 8 year old was sick, and I mean deliriously so, a full 3 weeks out of 6. He’d be sick for a week, be better for a week, be sick the next, etc…It was awful for him and all of us. I got the flu shot before I left the hospital when I had son #3 in October and, to my horror and shame, just realized my two other boys haven’t been vaccinated against it yet. I would never forgive myself if they caught the flu and died because I was too scatterbrained to get them in for the shot. There’s also our 3 month old who can’t get the shot, but CAN still contract the flu. I’m calling Walgreens right now to see if they can give my boys the shot, -27 degrees with a -50 windchill be darned!

  20. My Husband is dead set against the Flu shot and will spout off all kinds of reasoning, but I suspect his objection is mainly due to his extreme phobia of needles. 🙂

    I used to get it irregularly, depending on how convenient it was, but since the H1N1 thing, hearing about people dying of respiratory complications from the flu, I have been getting a flu shot every year. I have asthma, and it seems safer to me to just get the shot.

  21. Last winter was the first time in probably 10 years that I didn’t get my flu shot, and I got the flu.So this winter I made sure I got one!

  22. My husband has no spleen, my father is over 70, my niece is under 2.

    I am not interested in harming the vulnerable populations I care about the most.

    Also, adults died and were left permenantly scarred and disabled by smallpox and polio. So vaccines are important for adults too!

  23. My husband has no spleen, my father is over 70, my niece is under 2.

    I am not interested in harming the vulnerable populations I care about the most.

    Also, adults died and were left permenantly scarred and disabled by smallpox and polio. And tetanus and rabies have never gone away–vaccines are invaluable in case you step on a rusty nail or get bitten by a frothing dog.

    So vaccines are important for adults too!

  24. My husband has no spleen, my father is over 70, my niece is under 2. I am not interested in harming the vulnerable populations I care about the most.

    Also, adults died and were left permenantly scarred and disabled by smallpox and polio. And tetanus and rabies have never gone away–vaccines are invaluable in case you step on a rusty nail or get bitten by a frothing dog.

    So vaccines are important for adults too!

  25. OMG Charlotte….i choked on my water. ‘Shots’ is an LMFAO {featuring Lil John sooo not age appropriate} song–you tube the video. i happen to be a fan hence the funny which is PERFECT.

    Anywhoo, i don’t get a flu shot & have had the flu a few times. It sucks but as long as there is cold meds, aspirins & coffeewheeeeee..i always make it thru my crazy week.

    Keep Strong everyone!

  26. I am a teacher and in a double germ pool- Elementary and HS. I get the vaccine. I saw my poor son have the raging Who Knows What Type Influenza as a Jr. High kid and it was awful. This year a WEEK before I was scheduled to receive my flu shot at school I got a fairly mild case of something with a fever/bodyaches/chills virus and I felt like crap for a couple days- and yes my flu shot was administered a few weeks later. I don’t need that stuff! But to each his own, people need to do what they think is right. I just want to sway to odds in my favor!

  27. With asthma when
    I get sick with cold or fly I get sick sick eick, so I have gotten the flu shot for years. My husband usually doesnt (needle phobia) but has suffered through a few nasty flus that I have avoided. Right before I started chemo he and I both got our shots and I am glad we did, as there are some nasty strains this year. Everyone seems to be sick.
    I am very vocal in my pro-vaccination stance…largely from having a lit of hippy friends who are honestly convinced vaccines are big pharmas ploy and a dangerous toxic risk. We simpky don’t live in a world pf polio or measles anymore and miss just what vaccines do for us…altho with a measles and the flu rampant this year in some parts of Canada due to people being scared of vaccinating themselves and families perhaps people will step up and vaccinate.

  28. The last time I had the flu was in 2002, and the memory of that experience has motivated me to get my flu shot every year since.

  29. As a pediatrician, I am seeing flu in my patient population, but so far the only children with influenza are the ones who didn’t get their flu vaccine–and those children looked pretty miserable. Parents–if you have given your children the flu vaccine for this flu season, please do so immediately–and get a dose for yourself too (that includes you dads, as well).

  30. I’m always interested in this question because where I’m from in Europe, adults and kids don’t get flu shots unless they’re high risk for some other reason. The elderly do, I think, but no one else. And then I moved to the US and everyone is all about the flu shots.

    Yeah, we get the flu and we’re sick for a week and then we go back to work/school/whatever. I don’t know if the flu here is particularly nasty (a la needing life support) or we’re just a little more pragmatic about it all (I link this in my own mind to the prescribing of antibiotics: Dutch doctors don’t prescribe antibiotics for most things until it’s absolutely necessary, and as far as I know, people don’t go to the doctor for flu or whatever, preferring just to wait it out). So it’s also an interesting cultural question: how much sickness is expected and tolerated in a certain culture?

    I will add that kids are generally vaccinated for non-flu things (measles, mumps, etc etc) and I don’t often hear a big debate about that.

    • I just saw on nbcnews.com that a five year old died from flu complications. That’s why we get the flu vaccine. The flu can and does kill, and it has no regard for cultural expectations.

  31. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Americans choosing to give their kids flu shots. I’m just saying we do not and that there is a cultural reasoning behind the choices parents make. Who knows, if I have kids here, I might give mine a shot, too, because it’s the expected thing to do and there are obviously benefits. If I have kids in the Netherlands, I probably won’t (if only because the flu shot doesn’t protect you against all strains, anyway, something Dutch society is cognizant of). In any case, I don’t really think my comment warrants the hostility I read in yours. There was no judgment in my tone–parents and adults can do what they see fit.

  32. This is interesting to me, because here in Sweden the flu shot seems popular. My work provides it for free and there was a line constantly for the two hours they were vaccinating.

    However, here it is basically impossible to get an antibiotic. I think you have to have an extremely high fever before it’s considered.

  33. Gimli boy who died had H1N1 flu virus in lungs, says mom
    Mother of 19-month-old Kylan Lux urging parents to get flu shots for their children
    CBCNEWS Posted: Jan 09, 2014 11:14 PM CT Last Updated: Jan 10, 2014 6:51 AM CT

    A mother from Gimli, Man., is urging parents to ensure their children have the flu shot, after an autopsy on her young son revealed the H1N1 influenza virus was in his lungs.

    Michelle Prymych’s 19-month-old son, Kylan Lux, was found dead in his crib on the morning of Dec. 12.

    Prymych said her son’s death was swift and unexpected. Video footage she captured of Kylan the night before showed a robust and playful toddler.

    Every day since has been a bit dreamlike, said the grieving woman.

    “I always find myself, like, checking my shoulder, like, you know what I mean? Like an instinct [because] you’re a mom [so] you’re always like, ‘where is he? What’s he doing?’

    That’s the hardest,” she said.

    After weeks of wondering how Kylan died, Prymych said provincial health officials called her on Wednesday with a potential clue: the autopsy on Kylan indicated the H1N1 virus was present in his lungs.

    “I sat there and I was just like, ‘are you serious?'” she said.

    While it’s not known if Kylan died because of an H1N1 infection, Prymych said parents should not take any chances with their children’s health.

    “Get your kids vaccinated; yourselves, too, not even just kids,” she told CBC News Thursday night.

    “It’s important. A lot of people don’t do it anymore, and they should. They need to do it.

    “It can happen to anybody. Everyone thinks, “oh it won’t happen to me or I can’t catch that.” But anybody can.”

    Prymych said she is haunted by “what ifs.”

    http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/gimli-boy-who-died-had-h1n1-flu-virus-in-lungs-says-mom-1.2491213?cmp=rss

  34. Melissa it sounds like there is common sense in Sweden because overuse of anti-biotics is not a good thing. It fight bacterial infections not viral infections so if you are just sick with any type of virus not necessarily the flu, it won’t help. Many times people stop taking them anyway when they feel better making the bacteria resistant and doing nothing for a virus excepting building up your own immunity to the antibiotic. That is why they always have to come up with new ones that cost more and more. Probably in Sweden they only give out antibiotics when you have an obvious bacterial infection sinus infection, ear infection, wound infections and there are antibiotics that are best for certain types of infections. You may get a temp with both..and a virus can make you prone to infections but antibiotic dosing makes you prone to yeast infections and fungus and loss of good bacteria. .