Immune and infectious diseases Archive

If you have not yet gotten a flu shot, the CDC has issued an advisory for this season that may make you reconsider. The severity of the virus is stronger this year, and while the vaccine may not be as effective as in years past, some protection is better than none.

If you are planning to get a flu shot but have not yet done so, it may be worth waiting a little longer, as data on patients from four recent flu seasons found that protection against the virus declined over the course of the winter.

One antiviral medication has drawn criticism, but it's still a treatment option.

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Bad case of the flu? Antiviral medications, such as oseltamivir (Tamiflu) or zanamivir (Relenza), may reduce symptoms and help you recover from the flu a day or two earlier. But oseltamivir came under fire a few months ago for a lack of effectiveness.

In June, the World Health Organization (WHO) removed oseltamivir from its list of essential medicines. "Their decision was based on the relatively low effectiveness of oseltamivir in clinical trials and clinical practice. I suspect this is due to a significant number of people who started therapy after their flu symptoms had been going on for more than two days," says Dr. Paul Sax, an infectious disease specialist and Harvard Medical School professor.

Research we're watching

Not only is obesity a risk factor for flu complications, but it might actually make the flu vaccine less effective, says a study published online June 6, 2017, by the International Journal of Obesity. Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that the flu shot provides less protection in people who are obese.

The study compared flu rates in 1,022 people during two recent flu seasons. All participants were vaccinated against the flu. The researchers looked at immune response to the vaccine and also tracked who went on to get the virus. They found that nearly 10% of obese participants got the flu, compared with 5% of their healthy-weight counterparts. This is bad news, because individuals with a body mass index of 40 or higher are also more prone to flu complications.