Why patients with chronic health conditions are encouraged to take flu vaccine
The Peninsula
Doha: There are many reasons to get a flu vaccination each year but, primarily, it’s the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones against flu and its potentially serious complications.
Manager of Health Protection at the Preventive Health Directorate of the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), Dr Khalid Al Awad, said “Most people who become sick with flu recover within a few days, but some may develop serious complications, like pneumonia, bronchitis and sinus infection. For those with underlying chronic health conditions, their impacted immune systems not only put them at high risk of these serious, flu-related, complications, but flu may also make their chronic health problems worse.
The flu vaccination can keep you from getting sick with flu but, if you do get it, the vaccination has been shown in, several studies, to reduce the severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick, therefore reducing the risk of flu-associated hospitalization.