Is the flu shot safe? [La Prensa (San Antonio, TX)]

There 's a chill in the air - and while it whispers the holidays are coming, it 's a gentle reminder that the flu and cold season is upon us, too. Year after year, many health professionals and the Center for Disease Controls have touted the influenza vaccine (the flu vaccine) as a must-have to insure our health and the health of our loved ones. Every big-box store, supermarket and pharmacy in town is stocked and manned to make sure everyone gets their flu shots. But is the influenza vaccine as effective and safe as advertised?

Unlike other illnesses, such as chicken pox, measles, polio and small pox, for example, the influenza virus is constantly evolving and mutating into different strains to defend and protect itself. And thanks to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics, sometimes even used to treat flu-like symptoms, resistant super bugs now exist. These super bugs are often difficult to diagnose and treat, and the largest impact of illness and fatalities occurs in the most vulnerable segments that we as a society fight to protect the young and the elderly.

The influenza vaccines that many in the medical community and government are urging the public to use are also comprised of mutated and evolved strains - with the distinction that these strains are created by scientists in a lab. And every year, big-pharma and the CDC, along with other health agencies worldwide, make an educated guess - a gamble of sorts - about which strains should be included in the coming year's vaccine. The difficulty is that there is no absolute way to reliably predict the evolution or mutation of this virus, so scientists create new mutations of influenza in an effort to mimic nature and create vaccines to safeguard the human population.

Some researchers suggest this hit or miss approach of introducing mutated strains of influenza into a population could be a dangerous and a haphazard method to prevent future diseases, however noble the intent. New strains are introduced, no questions asked, and potentially become yet another version in the already crowded arena of flu viruses affecting the human populace.

Perfect examples of the mutating influenza viruses are the Avian and Swine Flu, as well as SARS, the deadly airborne virus. In spite of the constant manipulation of the influenza virus, we have been unable to halt the epidemics caused by these strains. Still, every year people rush out to be inoculated by an unproven vaccination that might not even have the right ingrethents to prevent this season's prevalent virus, since no one can actually pinpoint how or when these evolved strains will show themselves.

There is no computer program or researcher that can effectively predict what the new crop of strains or mutations will be or where these mutations will show up. Still, every year, millions of people expose themselves to these vaccines without complete knowledge of the level of protection they might be getting or the long term effects.

And precisely because the science is so imprecise, there is no sure-fire method to successfully create a vaccine that provides true and real coverage or to effectively predict what strain of the influenza virus we need to fight against. Such uncertainty might be enough to cause the general population to think twice before automatically accepting an influenza vaccine, but the numbers tell a different story.

In fact, according to Tom Jefferson in a 20 1 0 Cochrane Systematic Review of 36 trials covering 70,000 vaccinated versus unvaccinated people ages 16 to 65, there are more than 200 viruses which cause influenza and influenza-like illness and produce similar symptoms (fever, headache, aches and pains, cough and runny noses). He writes, "Without laboratory tests, doctors cannot tell the two illnesses apart. Both last for days and rarely lead to death or serious illness... vaccines might be effective against only influenza A and B, which represent about 10 percent of all circulating viruses."

The study finds the vaccination against influenza reportedly had a modest effect on time off work and no effect on hospital admissions or complication rates. Also, the data show that the inactivated vaccines, the kind generally in use now, caused an estimated 1 .6 additional cases of Guillain-Barré Syndrome per million vaccinations.

Common sense can help limit the spread of many viruses, colds and even influenza. Remember to cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. Hand-washing is probably the single most important preventative: wash hands often with soap and water, or keep an alcoholbased hand rub handy. Remember to avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth and try to avoid close contact with sick people.

When sick with flu-like illness, the CDC recommends you stay home for at least 24 hours after the fever is gone, except to get medical care or for other necessities. And of course, while sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from infecting them.

If you decide the flu shot is for you, according to Dr. Bob Sears, author of the "The Vaccine Book," avoid taking it at the same time as any other vaccine. This is particularly an issue with little ones who are still receiving a schedule of traditional vaccines for other illnesses. Sears points out that scientists have not studied the risks, and while little known, this information is clearly spelled out in the product inserts.

The CDC website also states the vaccine can fail if one gets sick within two weeks of receiving the vaccine. They also note several studies conducted over different flu seasons with different influenza viruses and types of flu vaccine indicate a person's resistance to infection and protective antibody against influenza viruses declines for a year after receiving the flu vaccination, particularly in the elderly. The site explains this could be due to a person' s health or to an antigen in the vaccine.

Each year, the World Health Organization recommends which viral strains should make up the vaccinations for the forthcoming season. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA' s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) met in February to select the influenza viruses to be included in the influenza vaccine for the 2011 -20 1 2 season. They based the recipe for this year's vaccine on surveillance data related to epidemiology and antigenic characteristics of recent influenza isolates, serological responses to last year's vaccines, and the availability of candidate strains and reagents.

Based on those statistics, the committee decided to include an A/ California/7/09 (HlNl)-like virus; an A/Perth /16/2009 (H3N2)-like virus; a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus and an A/California/7/09 (HlNl)-like virus is the pandemic (HlNl) 2009 influenza virus - a concoction remarkably similar to last year's.

In a recent release, the FDA states, "This year's vaccine for the United States includes the same viruses that were used for the 2010-201 1 influenza season and the influenza vaccine composition is identical to that recommended by the World Health Organization on February 17, 201 1, for the Northern Hemisphere's 201 1-2012 influenza season."

So while the jury is still out on the effectiveness of vaccine, the risk of continually introducing mutated and evolved viruses into people combined with the excessive use of antibiotics and antivirals could create a scenario for greater problems in the future, like a pandemic that could rival the bubonic plague that wiped out most of Europe. The medical community and the general public should insist on further research about the safety and true rate of effectiveness for these vaccines before blindly accepting them as a silver bullet for the annual flu season.

HEB Pharmacy partner Mr. Peeps check the supply of this year's flu vaccines at the Brookhollow store. (Photo, Sophie Covo)

By Heather Andrews & Angela Covo

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