Health expert: Back-to-school checklist should include flu shot

Pencils, notebooks, backpacks and lunchboxes are frequent back-to-school staples, however pediatric well being consultants suggest dad and mom add flu photographs to the checklist.

Fall and winter are virus seasons. Because youngsters are collectively in contained school rooms, well being care suppliers generally see extra viral infections throughout that point.

With the coronavirus dominating a lot of the eye for the previous couple of years, MedStar pediatric infectious illness specialist Dr. Ruth Kanthula instructed WTOP that many individuals slacked off with their flu photographs.

“And truthfully, with the first season of COVID, back in 2020, we were seeing less flu, and we were seeing predominantly COVID,” mentioned Kanthula. “But that changed for the second season of COVID. In fall 2021, we were seeing more flu than we had the year previously.”

However, predicting the 2022 flu season is a bit sophisticated.

“One of the things that we’ve been seeing from a pediatric standpoint is some of the viruses that are normal for children have been off-cycle,” Kanthula mentioned. “For example, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is a virus that we typically see in the late summer through winter, but we were seeing it in the spring.”

Kanthula mentioned human metapneumovirus, which might trigger chilly signs, is one other instance of a virus usually seen within the fall, however which started circulating in the summertime.

“So lots of different viruses are off-cycle, and I don’t know if it’s because of COVID, so it’s really unpredictable what flu is going to do this year,” she mentioned. “But since we have a vaccine, I encourage everyone to get vaccinated.”

Timing is essential for the flu vaccine to be handiest.

“It’s recommended you get the flu vaccine at the end of September or early October, just to make sure you have enough protection through the season, which goes through May,” Kanthula mentioned.

Kanthula additionally encourages getting COVID-19 vaccines for school-aged youngsters this fall, relying on the place the kid is inside their vaccine schedule. She recommends good hand hygiene and would nonetheless encourage masks carrying indoors to forestall viral infections.

Area pharmacies, physicians’ workplaces and clinics are starting to obtain their flu vaccine provides, and Kanthula says dad and mom will probably be receiving messages from their pediatrician quickly, to allow them to know the flu vaccine is obtainable.

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