How Do Flu Vaccines Work?
This year's flu season has already begun, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urges people to get flu vaccines as the most important defense against the flu. Flu vaccines work to protect our body from influenza. Flu vaccines are available in two forms: flu shots and nasal spray flu vaccines. According to the CDC, “All flu vaccines for the 2022-2023 season are quadrivalent vaccines, designed to protect against four different flu viruses, including two influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses.”
In this article, we’ll discuss how flu vaccines work, why you should get flu vaccines, how flu vaccines are made, and if getting flu vaccines are effective against influenza.
What’s In The Article?
Why Should You Get A Flu Vaccine?
How Are Flu Vaccines Made?
How Do Flu Vaccines Work?
Are Flu Vaccines Effective?
Final Thoughts
Why Should You Get A Flu Vaccine?
The flu vaccine is your strong defense against influenza and its complications. Flu is a common infection in any age group, and the CDC recommends that people six months and older get a flu vaccine yearly.
Flu vaccines work to prevent flu infection and reduce your chances of getting severely sick from the virus. Flu vaccination also protects people around you who may be more susceptible to serious illness.
While you can still get influenza even if you are vaccinated, the flu vaccine can reduce the time of infection in your body. Flu vaccines work to help your immune system fight the virus, making the disease less severe, which can go away after a few days.
Flu vaccination can also reduce the risk of hospitalization related to flu illness and lessen your medication cost and the expense of visiting your physician.
Another significant benefit you can get from flu vaccines is the prevention of serious complications from the influenza virus. Pneumonia, Bronchitis, organ failure, and other secondary infections can occur due to flu infections, which are more common in people with a weak immune system, older adults, and people with an existing medical condition.
According to the CDC, getting flu vaccines can prevent
How Are Flu Vaccines Made?
Flu vaccines in the US are made using three different FDA-approved technologies. These are egg-based production, cell-based production, and recombinant technology.
Egg-based vaccine production uses candidate vaccine viruses (CVVs) inserted into a hen’s fertilized egg, allowing the virus to reproduce. Egg-based are used to create most flu shots and the nasal spray flu vaccine.
The antigen is purified from inactivated or killed vaccine viruses to make flu shots, while nasal spray, also called live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV), is created using live but weakened viruses.
Since egg-based vaccines need a lot of chicken eggs in production, it requires more time to develop than other manufacturing methods.
Another vaccine production technology approved in the US is called cell-based production. This process produces CVVs using flu viruses grown in cultured mammalian cells. Then, these CVVs are inserted into mammalian cells to replicate for days before purifying the antigen.
Although it uses mammalian cells instead of chicken eggs, the CDC has stated that no animals are harmed during the entire production process. This method is used to develop flu shots, not the nasal spray flu vaccine.
The third technology used to develop flu vaccines is called recombinant technology. This method doesn’t require CVVs. Instead, a virus antigen called hemagglutinin (HA) is obtained.
This process creates a “recombinant” baculovirus by combining a certain protein with a baculovirus to produce the HA. A baculovirus is a virus that grows in insects. Then, the resulting recombinant virus is inserted into insect cells to let them replicate. Lastly, the HA antigen is harvested and purified from the cells.
How Do Flu Vaccines Work?
Flu vaccines work by allowing our immune system to recognize the flu virus and produce antibodies that protect our body against the virus.
Flu vaccines contain antigens from inactivated or weakened viruses that cannot replicate in the human body. These antigens will help your immune system identify a flu virus and stimulate the building of antibodies.
Flu vaccines work with certain conditions. You should understand what’s the best flu vaccine for you before getting one to avoid serious side effects and get the maximum protection against the flu.
Are Flu Vaccines Effective?
Yes, according to studies conducted by the CDC, flu vaccines are proven effective against influenza and its complications. Factors like age and current health status may affect the vaccine’s effectiveness. However, there are appropriate vaccines for these conditions.
Like any other medications and vaccines, side effects from flu vaccines are still possible. These can include headaches, injection site swelling, fever, and nausea. However, these can go away on their own after a few days.
Since the structure of flu viruses is constantly changing, the flu vaccines for this season may not be effective for the next year’s flu season, and the CDC recommends that we get flu vaccines every year.
Final Thoughts
Influenza is one of the severe infectious illnesses that a vaccine can prevent. Flu infection can cause mild to severe complications, and flu vaccines are our most vital protection against this disease. Knowing how flu vaccines work will help us understand why we should be vaccinated every year. Getting vaccinated is not only protecting yourself but other people as well.