• 25/11/2022
• By wizewebsite
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Prof. Aries: Vaccination is a burden on the immune system. But it is done because the infection is a greater burden<

Prof. MD Jiří Beran, CSc. from the Center for Vaccination and Travel Medicine in Hradec Králové is a guest of our radio consultation on the topic: everything about the flu and what you were afraid to ask.

Prof. MD Jiří Beran, CSc. (*1960)

since April 2002, he has been the director and chief physician of the Center for Vaccination and Travel Medicine in Hradec Králové. He founded and from 2002 to 2008 led a similar center at the Department of Infectious Diseases of the University Hospital in Hradec Králové. With a short break, since 2004 he has been the head of the Independent Teaching Department of Tropical and Travel Medicine at the Institute of Postgraduate Education in Health Care in Prague.

Do you get vaccinated against the flu?

I get vaccinated against the flu once every three years. This stems from the fact that significant changes do not occur from year to year. And I, personally, because I spend the winter in tropical areas, where the occurrence of the flu virus is a little different than in our country, I am basically always boosting my immunity a little bit.

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In tropical regions, the flu epidemic takes place in the autumn and spring months when influenza virus from the southern hemisphere to the northern, and then when it returns.

The application of the vaccine is always recommended before the flu season starts. So optimally from October to December. So do we still have time?

There is still time, but I personally always recommend vaccination as soon as possible. Vaccines are available mostly from September 15. Vaccination consists of the administration of a single dose of vaccine. Today, unlike five years ago, it contains 4 flu strains. 2 against influenza A, which is more severe, and 2 against influenza type B, which is not as severe, but again these 2 strains cover the entire spectrum of influenza B viruses found on the globe.

Vaccination is supposed to lead to the fact that our immune system is already informed about the infection and is ready to react to it much better.Prof. MD Jiří Beran, CSc., Center for Vaccination and Travel Medicine in Hradec Králové

If a person gets vaccinated earlier, he avoids being vaccinated later as part of an ongoing acute respiratory disease. In autumn, so-called respiratory, syncytial viruses, adenoviruses or rhinoviruses also appear, that's what the common cold is like. And the flu comes right before Christmas, and then around the fourth or fifth week of the new year. That's where the main epidemic begins.

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Opinions are heard that risk groups should be vaccinated against both the coronavirus and the flu. Do you agree?

A double vaccine against both diseases has not been created at the same time. There have been several studies in the world that followed the application of both vaccines in opposite arms. And those studies showed that the reactogenicity does not increase either, that is, there is no greater number of reactions than after individual applications, and of course it was determined how much the vaccine protects in terms of stimulating the immune system.

There it also turned out that the interference does not occur. However, I personally recommend that anyone who gets vaccinated should get a flu shot as soon as possible. If he is already vaccinated against covid, then the deadline for people who belong to the risk group, the third dose comes sometime after the eighth month.

Will there even be flu this year?

Last year, perhaps thanks to the closure of the company due to covid, it eluded us.

I think the flu is coming. It just depends on how significant the anti-epidemic measures against the coronavirus will be, which are very similar in that they interrupt the transmission routes for the flu as well. Last year the company closed, there were very strict and widespread measures at the individual level. And this, of course, led to the fact that other respiratory diseases, including the flu, did not spread so strongly.

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Mr. Pavel writes, we got vaccinated and had a bad flu. We have not been vaccinated since then. Can you comment on that?

It is usually the case that people very often get vaccinated relatively late. That person may already have a mild viral respiratory infection going on secretly, and if he gets vaccinated, it will start to dominate. A heightened reaction occurs.

But for most people over the age of 60, we know that although vaccination does not prevent an ongoing infection in 50 percent of cases, it is able to prevent hospitalizations in 70 percent of cases and is able to prevent deaths in up to 90 percent of cases.

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I am very sorry that such an unpleasant thing happened to them, but I still think that flu vaccination for risk groups is of great importance.

When someone gets vaccinated against covid, flu and perhaps a tick, isn't that a big burden on the body? What do you think about it?

Every vaccination is certainly a burden on the immune system. But vaccination is done primarily because the ongoing infection is then a far greater burden. In other words, vaccination should lead to the fact that our immune system is already informed about the infection and is ready to react to it much more promptly and better.

Is it right to give flu shots to children too?

I believe that it is better for children to exercise and strengthen their immune system to increase the quality of the mucus in the airways. I'm not a huge fan of flu shots in the pediatric population. It is much more necessary to vaccinate people over the age of 60.

The entire vaccination radio consultation with Prof. MD Jiří Beran, CSc. from the Center for Vaccination and Travel Medicine in Hradec Králové, you can listen to it in our audio archive.