BMJ: Flu jag timing matters

Posted on by kaitiscotland

From BMJ May 2019: Minerva BMJ 2019;365:1993

A review in Science indicates that vaccines for mumps, whooping cough and yellow fever lose their effectiveness more quickly than those for measles, diptheria, tetanus and flu.

The flu vaccine at best only protects about 60% of the people given it in any given year. Its effectiveness also declines after just a few months. If you are first in the queue to get it towards the end of September, much of its effects will be lost by January and February which are the peak months for flu infection.

My comment: Maybe you should plan to get the jag any time from mid November to mid December  if you are very keen on getting maximum effectiveness to prevent flu?

 

Published by kaitiscotland

I am a Scottish doctor who is working to improve the outcomes for people who have diabetes using a low carb diet, and advanced insulin techniques when necessary. Professionally I provide expert witness reports in the clinical forensic and family medicine areas and I also provide complementary therapies. I enjoy cooking, cinema, reading, travel and cats.

4 thoughts on “BMJ: Flu jag timing matters”

  1. I talked to my wife about this blog this afternoon. In the US the CDC seems to want us get vaccinated as soon as possible to restrict the number of cases that develop early in order to lessen the issues in January and February. So I find the BMJ advice curious. Now what the CDC does often say then in January and February is that if we have a chronic illness we should have a second vaccination. So I wonder if the BMJ addresses the second injection advice?

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  2. In the UK we don’t have a second wave of vaccinations but I can see the point of it. From a game theory point of view it would probably make the most sense for “healthy” people to get the jag early in the season to limit the number of people who are around to pass flu around, and for those with high degrees of morbidity to wait till mid November-mid December to get the jag to reduce their individual risk of getting the flu.

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    1. Or you could ensure that your immune system works properly. In the last fourteen low carb years I haven’t had the flu and have had two actual colds and hardly any “food poisoning”. Throughout the rest of my life I was a martyr to colds, flu, squits, skin, eye, sinus, gum and fungal infections and outbreaks of thrush. Obviously the glucose spikes were killing my immune system and now they are not. Rump steak, lamb chops and liver probably helps too.

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