Halloween marks the end of the beginning of our fall season. For FLASS, Halloween has been a marked goal. However, this goal date was not for pumpkins. Halloween 2018 Costumes or treats. We made Halloween 2018 a goal because we hoped by the end of October, your family would have taken their Flu shots.
Did we make our goal? Have you had your flu vaccine? It’s the only really sincere way to say “Boo” to the flu.
A Time For Booing the Flu Demon: Protect Your Family with Flu Vaccine.
FLASS: Making Your Family Flu Proof By Halloween Night
Getting a Flu vaccination by the end of October, Halloween 2018, is an especially important issue if you are 65 years old and older. Your age puts you at high risk of developing serious complications from flu.
This Halloween, 2018, remember, “flu vaccines are updated each season as needed to keep up with changing viruses.” Also, immunity decreases over a year. So, “annual vaccination is needed to ensure the best possible protection against influenza.”
We want to alert you that “A flu vaccine protects against the flu viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season. The 2018-2019 flu vaccine has been updated from last season’s vaccine to better match circulating viruses.” Did you know it takes 2 weeks for your immunity to “set in” after the vaccination?
Halloween 2018 and Flu Vaccine Reduces Serious Flu Outcomes: Let’s Say “Boo” to the Flu!
- FLASS alerts high-risk groups to the fact that Flu shots reduce serious outcomes that can result in hospitalization for Senior Citizens.
Some Scary Facts for Grandma and Grampa.
In Fact, “a 2017 study showed that flu vaccination reduced deaths,…”
- Likewise, having the flu shot reduced intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. Flu shots also reduced serious symptoms that were a result of the flu. Also, the shots reduced the ICU length of stay and overall duration of hospitalization among hospitalized flu patients.
- The greatest advantages of the flu shots are often reported for the risk group of 65 and older.
Halloween 2018 Brings Worse than Vampires and Ghosts
Most Valuable Halloween Treats: Your Lungs and Your Health.
Let’s face a few facts of the normal passage of time. It’s not spooky; it’s just the normal process of aging and the Circle of Life. You see, the older you become, the weaker your immune system becomes. That means you have a lower level of protection compared to younger, healthier age groups.
Sadly, FLASS must warn you that you are therefore more susceptible to the flu when you are senior. Thus, I am sure you understand why your doctors and staff at FLASS are very concerned to notify you and your fellow seniors about the value of the flu vaccination.
Say a Halloween 2018 Boo to the Flu with Types of Flu Shots for People 65 and Older
This is the time of year when television depicts the awful mallet and spike method of killing a vampire. It is not near that difficult or horrifying to kill the flu virus. We have 2 vaccines designed specifically for people 65 and older.
Say “BOO” to the Flu with either one:
1. The Magical High Dose Flu Vaccine:
The “high dose vaccine” contains 4 times the amount of antigen as a regular flu shot. Therefore, your body will give the flu a punch with a stronger immune response following vaccination. Likewise, this vaccine assists higher antibody production.
In a research study of more than 30,000 participants, we saw that seniors who received the high dose vaccine had reduced symptoms than those who received the standard dose flu vaccine. We think that’s pretty amazing. You can investigate more facts about the high dose flu vaccine with a visit to this trustworthy online resource linked above.
Happy Halloween And Remember: It’s Not Apples, but Flu Shots that Keep the Doctor Away.
2. Say “BOO” to the Halloween Flu with the Adjuvanted Flu Vaccine, Fluad. This formula contains the MF59 adjuvant. That’s an additive “that creates a stronger immune response to vaccination.”
Canadian Study Proves the Point
In a Canadian observational study of 282 people aged 65, “Fluad was 63% more effective than regular-dose unadjuvanted flu shots.”
Candy For Tricksters and Flu Shots for Treats: Especially for Seniors!
A Special Note to Grandma and Grampa: While you are out and about, picking up Halloween candy to give to little ghosts and goblins for Trick or Treat, get your flu shots. Likewise, we also hope you will get your pneumococcal vaccines at the same time.
You should also know that “pneumococcal pneumonia is an example of a serious flu-related complication that can cause death.
Protect yourself from much worse villains than ghosts and zombies.
Take your “pneumococcal vaccination to protect against pneumococcal diseases, such as:
- pneumonia, meningitis, and bloodstream infections.” Of course, you should talk to your doctor to find out which pneumococcal vaccines are best for you.
Say Boo to Triggers Too: Asthma Can Also Cause Serious Complications
By the way, are you or someone you love also suffering from Asthma? In a previous blog, we have described serious problems that you are likely to encounter at this time of year. Here are just a few of the triggers and precautions to review:
Look out for that new costume. Even new costumes may contain dust mites and other store irritations.
And last years “Princess’s Dress” could contain mold, mothballs, dust etc.
Also, be on the look-out for problems with makeup, contact lenses, and prosthetic glue. These would be possible asthma triggers all year long. However, they become more popular at Halloween. And they can trigger that familiar wheezing
Halloween: Be Careful What You Taste, Wear, Touch or Inhale if You Have Asthma.
and chest pain of an asthma attack.
- Are you going to a Halloween party? Halloween parties at a friend’s home can be a special nightmare. In last year’s Halloween Blog, this blogger, the FLASS Blogger, Charmaine Beleele, wrote, my own Halloween personal experience stories,
- I reported, “As a child, the asthma triggers I hated the most were part of my own favorite neighbor’s home. And yet, in spite of my asthma, my friends and I loved to visit her, especially at Halloween. She would set up her dining room with an apple-bobbing tub, exotically spiced candles, fake cobwebs, and a dry-ice machine. And wafting over it all was the faint nicotine haze of the sweet, elderly lady’s cigarette smoke.”
- “You guessed it. Every one of those celebratory items was an asthma trigger for me. In case of a Halloween Party, remember that “other people’s homes may have cigarette smoke, dust, or pet dander that could trigger allergies or asthma.”
- When decorating for Halloween, FLASS repeats last year’s plea that you remember that candle wax, room scent, air fresheners, and jack-o-lanterns can be asthma triggers, and any type of mist or smoke can cause irritation.
- “Dry ice and fog machines can make breathing very difficult. They can even affect people who do not have to watch out for asthma triggers.”
Halloween 2018: Just Say “Boo” to the Flu and Asthma Triggers Too!
Although we wish you and your family a Happy Halloween with this blog, the intent of the article today is serious—deadly serious.
We know of one cute kid who was so moved and impressed by a similar article that he dressed up for Halloween as a giant flu shot. He wore a big cardboard tube with a plastic sword hat for a “needle.” He drafted his little brother to dress as a flu virus. There was lots of hilarity, but his grandmother got the point and got her flu shot.
Have a happy, healthy and safe Halloween!