What Are the Benefits of Getting a Flu Vaccine?

There are many reasons to get vaccinated against influenza (flu) every year. Flu vaccination is the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones against influenza and its potentially serious complications.

The following is a summary of the benefits of influenza vaccination and selected scientific studies that support these benefits.

Flu vaccination can prevent you from getting sick with the flu.

— Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and doctor visits each year. For example, during the 2019-2020 period, influenza vaccination prevented an estimated 7.5 million illnesses caused by influenza, 3.7 million medical visits associated with influenza, 105,000 hospitalizations associated with influenza, and 6,300 deaths associated with influenza.

— During seasons when flu vaccine viruses are similar to circulating flu viruses, the flu vaccine has been shown to reduce the risk of having to go to a doctor with the flu by 40 to 60 percent.

Flu vaccination has been shown in several studies to reduce the severity of illness in people who get vaccinated but still get sick.

— A 2021 study showed that among adults, influenza vaccination was associated with a 26% lower risk of admission to the ICU and a 31% lower risk of death from influenza compared to those who were not vaccinated.

— A 2018 study showed that among adults hospitalized with the flu, vaccinated patients were 59 percent less likely to be admitted to the ICU than those who had not been vaccinated. Among adults in the ICU with the flu, vaccinated patients on average spent 4 fewer days in the hospital than those who were not vaccinated.

Flu vaccination may reduce the risk of hospitalization associated with influenza.

— Flu vaccination prevents tens of thousands of hospitalizations each year. For example, during the 2019-2020 period, influenza vaccination prevented an estimated 105,000 flu-related hospitalizations.

— A 2014 study showed that influenza vaccination reduced the risk of children entering the flu-related pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) by 74 percent during influenza seasons from 2010 to 2012. A 2017 study found that during 2009-2016, influenza vaccines reduced the risk of flu-associated hospitalization among older adults by approximately 40 percent on average.

— A 2018 study showed that from 2012 to 2015, influenza vaccination among adults reduced the risk of being admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) with influenza by 82 percent.

Flu vaccination is an important preventive tool for people with certain chronic illnesses.

— Flu vaccination has been associated with lower rates of some cardiac events among people with heart disease, especially those who have had a cardiac event in the past year.

— Influenza vaccination can reduce the risk of a worsening of flu-related chronic lung disease (for example, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that requires hospitalization.

— Among people with diabetes and chronic lung disease, it has also been shown in separate studies that influenza vaccination is associated with a reduction in hospitalizations due to a worsening of their chronic condition.

Flu vaccination helps protect pregnant women during and after pregnancy.

— Vaccination reduces the risk of flu-associated acute respiratory infection in pregnant women by approximately half.

— A 2018 study showed that getting a flu shot reduced a pregnant person's risk of being hospitalized for the flu by an average of 40 percent between 2010 and 2016.

— Several studies have shown that, in addition to helping to protect pregnant people from the flu, a flu shot given during pregnancy helps protect a baby from the flu for several months after birth, when he is too young to be vaccinated.

The flu vaccine can save children's lives.

— A 2017 study was the first of its kind to demonstrate that influenza vaccination can significantly reduce the risk of a child dying from the flu.

Getting vaccinated yourself can also protect the people around you, including those who are most vulnerable to serious flu illnesses, such as infants and young children, older people, and people with certain chronic health conditions.

Despite the many benefits of influenza vaccination, only about half of Americans are vaccinated against influenza annually, and influenza continues to cause millions of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths. Many more people could be protected from the flu if more people were vaccinated.

Source: Www.cdc.gov

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