Flu Shots and Pancreatitis: Do Flu Shots Work?

Flu Shot Effectiveness

If you are like me you probably are looking for ways that will keep you as healthy as possible.

Pancreatitis is a big enough problem all by itself but there are a myriad of different things that can cause a flare up. So you may be wondering about flu shots and pancreatitis.

One of my big concerns is getting sick from other causes that may make it easier for a flare-up. Since the Doctors don’t seem to know what causes my flare-ups I have this just seems to make sense to me.

So one of the things that I do is make sure that I get a flu shot every year. But in a recent article, a CDC report says that this years shot is only 23% effective and many of the people who got flu shots this year are going to get the flu anyway.

In the report the CDC warned that this years predominant flu virus, influenza A (H3N2), had “drifted” or changed genetically since the shot was made.

Flu shots are manufactured each year using the flu strains selected from the Northern Hemisphere in the later part of February of the prior year. This gives manufacturers about six months to make the vaccines from scratch before the start of the flu season in August.

As you might guess the shots were most effective in younger healthier people than in older persons. The report also didn’t specifically address flu shots and pancreatitis.

So what does that mean to those of us that regularly suffer from either chronic or acute pancreatitis, or worse some combination of these.

Well, it sounds like the CDC is saying that the shots work some of the time which is good news. But they don’t work all of the time which is bad news.

While the CDC doesn’t specifically say that the shots won’t work as well in people who are ill I think that you can see this reading between the lines and say that they don’t know about flu shots and pancreatitis.

Flu Shots and Pancreatitis: What Should We Do?

So, what is it that we who suffer from pancreatitis supposed to do? Should we or should we not take get flu shot every year?

The bottom line for me is that I know that if I get a cough it makes me spasm in my abdomen when I cough, which can then affect my pancreas which seems to be tender all the time.

So even if the flu shot this year isn’t as effective as we could hope, anything that lessens the chance of causing a flare-up is good with me.