PSA: Flu Season Means Higher Risk for Sepsis - Get Vaccinated!

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Every year, millions of people get the flu. The good news is that the seasonal flu vaccine can lower the risk of getting the flu by about half. Getting the yearly flu vaccine is the best way to protect yourself from the flu, which often leads to sepsis.

The WHO recommends annual vaccination for:

  • pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy
  • children aged between 6 months to 5 years
  • elderly individuals (aged more than 65 years)
  • individuals with chronic medical conditions
  • health-care workers

EU Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis calls on all EU citizens to receive the flu vaccine. Every year, 40,000 people in the EU, Liechtenstein, Iceland and Norway die from complications of influenza. The World Health Organization estimates that annual flu epidemics result in about 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness globally and 290,000 to 650,000 deaths. Sepsis ist one of the most serious complication of the flu.

This year’s dominant virus, H3N2, has been circulating for 50 years — it emerged as the “Hong Kong flu” in 1968 — but it is usually the most lethal of the seasonal strains.

Marvin Zick