Flu vaccine drive a success

Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is determined to continue with his drive to have all of TT vaccinated against the influenza virus.

The Health Ministry has published ads urging people to get their new 2019 flu vaccine.

However, many people seem to think the flu vaccine protects against getting the common cold, while others were sceptical about side effects, which are minimal compared to the benefits. The bottom line is, the vaccine does not protect people from the common cold. Influenza is a much more severe disease than the common cold and is often difficult to identify. It is accompanied by more fever, headaches, sneezing, muscle aches and vomiting than the common cold. There can be exacerbation in people with existing chronic diseases such as sinus infections, pneumonia, hospitalisation and also the risk of death. The flu season runs from October to May, which makes it possible for people to be vaccinated twice a year. Strains of the virus change, so if the vaccine is taken at the beginning of the year, it should be taken again closer to the end of the year.

Deyalsingh said the vaccine the ministry was receiving now was based on the best estimation of scientists as to what the influenza virus will look like, so they would formulate a vaccination based on assumption or guesswork. He said it may be that this vaccine may not be an exact match in any particular year for the current influenza virus.

The minister made this statement on November 23 during a news conference at the ministry’s head office, Park Street, Port of Spain when he was urging the population to be vaccinated against the influenza virus.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram, speaking with Newsday Monday during a telephone interview, said he considered the ministry’s flu vaccination drive a success.

“In the last flu season we would have issued just under 65,000 vaccines. We brought 75,000 vaccines into the country. There were a five to ten per cent that were not utilised. “Coming into the new term, within six weeks of the new year there were about 12,000 doses given out, so we are looking at about 2,000 vaccines per week.” Parasram said scepticism about the vaccine had decreased.

“I have not seen it as much as it would have been a year or two ago. Generally, I think (people) are more willing to get the vaccination, since the response has been very good from the population. The vaccine prevents the influenza virus, and even if you get it, the severity is very low compared to someone who is not vaccinated, so it really gives that benefit.”

The ministry has changed its policy of vaccinating only people in high-risk groups and is offering the vaccine to the entire population. High-risk groups included people over 65, children under five, pregnant women in their second and third trimesters and those with chronic diseases.

Parasram said this was a positive move, as it prevented one from infecting others in the high-risk groups.

“If I live in a household, but was not one of the high-risk groups, and I have a child who is less than five, or living with an elderly person, I put those people at risk by getting infected.”

The more people who are vaccinated, the more immunity is provided across the board, he said. There were eight deaths from the flu virus between 2015-2016. In 2017 there were 4,614 suspected cases and 3,880 for 2018, when two people died from the flu virus.