breastfeeding flu shot

female voiceover: let's saya patient comes in the clinicand they're trying to decide if they want to get the flu vaccine. as with any decision, they'reprobably going to weigh the risksand the benefits of the flu vaccine. as healthcare workers, it's reallyimportant that we understandthese risks and benefits so that we can talk to ourpatients about it and helpthem make an educated decision. so let's start out by thinking ofthe more common risks and benefits. with the flu shot, the most common risk isgoing to be pain at the site of injection or muscle soreness wherever the patientreceives the intramuscular injection. for some patients, particularlythose who are afraid of needles,

you also might hear reportsof lightheadedness afterreceiving the flu shot. so although these are the more commonrisks associated with the flu vaccine, let's remember that they'renot experienced by everyone. not everyone thinksthat the flu shot hurts. not everyone is sore the next day andcertainly not everyone feels lightheaded after getting the flu shot. for patients who are particularlyconcerned about this, if available you can offerthem the nasal spray, flumist. this provides the same protectionagainst flu without using needles.

let's counter these common risks withthe common benefits of the flu vaccine. the most obvious of which of courseis you have a decreased chanceof getting sick with the flu. for patients who areparticularly pain averse, they don't want to get the flu vaccinebecause they think it's going to hurt, i would counter this by saying,"you know what? flu hurts a lot. "you're stuck in bed for days.it's completely miserable, "and if i was a patient making thisdecision, i would go with the flu shot "in this case because i wouldrather have soreness in the arm "for a few days than be stuckin bed for three to five days."

let's turn our focus now to some ofthe more rare risks and benefits. in 1976 there were reports ofmuscle weakness after patientswere getting the flu vaccine. we found out that this was because ofsomething called guillain-barre syndrome. guillain-barre syndrome is a nerveproblem that leads to muscle weakness and although there was neverany proof that the flu vaccineactually caused guillain-barre, since 1976 we've beenscreening for this condition to make sure that it doesn'tlead to severe complications. in contrast to this rare risk, we have some less common benefitsassociated with the influenza vaccine.

that is a decreasedchance of hospitalizations and a decreased chance of death as aresult of complications of the flu virus. so if you remember from before,flu can cause up to 200,000hospitalizations every year, and anywhere from 20 to40,000 deaths every year. so again, if i was a patienttrying to make this decision based on these morerare benefits and risks, i would go with the flushot in this case as well. because i would much ratheravoid hospitalization anddeath if at all possible. so these are some considerations tothink about on an individual level.

another important considerationis the impact that the fluvaccine has on the community. what happens to thispatient's family members or their coworkers, orclassmates if your patient is a healthcare worker. how does theflu vaccine affect their patients? well, there is no risk involved in gettinga flu vaccine when you think about it from the perspective of a family member. if you get vaccinated it's notgoing to affect your familymember in a negative way. it can really only affect yourfamily members in a positive way. that's because if you're less likelyto get infected by the influenza virus,

you're also less likely to spread it. we call this herd immunity. herd immunity protects those around you, your close contacts and asa result it's definitely abenefit of becoming vaccinated. so when we think about allof these benefits together, i think it's pretty clear to seethe benefits outweigh the risks and that getting vaccinated againstthe flu virus is a good decision.