Influenza (Flu) FAQs
Select from the links below for answers to frequently asked questions about FluMist.
What is influenza?
How is the flu spread?
What are the symptoms of the flu?
How do I differentiate between the common cold and the flu?
Why should I vaccinate myself and my family against influenza?
Why is it important to vaccinate children against the flu?
How is FluMist different from the traditional flu shot?
What is influenza?
Influenza, commonly referred to as “the flu,” is a contagious disease caused by the influenza virus. Each year, up to 60 million Americans get the flu. Resulting complications cause more than 200,000 hospitalizations and about 36,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.
How is the flu spread?
The flu, much like the common cold, is airborne and can be easily transmitted from person to person. When a person infected with the flu virus sneezes, coughs, or even speaks, microscopic droplets that contain the virus are expelled into the air, which, if inhaled, can infect others. The flu can also be transmitted by touching contaminated surfaces and then touching the eyes, nose or mouth. Once the virus enters the respiratory system, it invades the lining of the throat, nasal passages and sometimes the lungs, and can cause an infection. The virus then infects healthy cells, rapidly reproducing thousands of copies, which can, in turn, infect other cells throughout the respiratory tract.
What are the symptoms of the flu?
Flu symptoms can include:
- fever
- chills
- headache
- extreme fatigue
- body aches
- dry cough
How do I differentiate between the common cold and the flu?
Cold and flu are often confused for one another because both are respiratory illnesses. The most notable difference is that the flu can result in serious complications such as pneumonia and bacterial infections or hospitalizations. Also, unlike symptoms of the common cold, the fatigue and weakness caused by the flu can last more than two weeks – lingering long after other symptoms subside.
Why should I vaccinate myself and my family against influenza?
Since a person’s immune system is better prepared to deal with a particular infection after successfully overcoming an initial exposure to something resembling it, vaccines are designed to expose the body to a disease-causing organism and to stimulate the immune system to produce a natural infection-fighting response. Future exposure to that organism will result in heightened immunity.
Why is it important to vaccinate children against the flu?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children younger than five years of age are at high risk for complications from the flu. The flu is most prevalent in school-age children, as the virus travels easily from person to person and because children in this age group spend a large part of their day in close contact with other children. Children two to 17 years of age are twice as likely to get influenza as adults, including the elderly. During a widespread outbreak, the rate of flu infections can exceed 30 percent in school-age children.
How is FluMist different from the traditional flu shot?
FluMist uses live, attenuated – or weakened – viruses within the vaccine, delivered as a nasal mist, to help stimulate an immune response that is designed to closely resemble the body’s natural response to an influenza infection. The traditional flu shot uses inactivated, or “killed,” viruses to formulate the vaccine and is delivered by an intramuscular injection.
Please see our fact sheet Get the Facts on Influenza for more information. (PDF)
Please see full Prescribing Information. (PDF)
