The Importance of Influenza Vaccination in Australia
Influenza is not the usual cold you get but an extremely infectious
illness which requires good amount of medical treatment and care to
protect the patient. Here are some facts that would help you to
understand the seriousness of the disease:
- It is a highly communicable and infrequently fatal disease that
can easily spread through sneezing and coughing.
- According to research, around 2,500 Australians lose their lives
to influenza related infections every year.
- The annual influenza vaccination is the one and only most
successful measure used to protect against this deadly flu.
- People under the age of 65 years are most vulnerable to this
disease.
- The most common reason of absenteeism at workplace in Australia
is due influenza, which results in a huge loss to the economy.
The effects of vaccination
In vaccination, a tiny trace of the influenza virus is injected to
the body which cause the immune system to respond and fight back as
if the body have been actually affected. Although this might give
rise to some temporary reactions but they are not as severe as
compared to the original disease.
There are several procedures to produce influenza vaccinations but
the most effective method is to cultivate the virus in the
fertilised eggs of hens. After the completion of the purification
process, the virus stays dormant to produce an inactivated virus
immunisation.
The production of influenza vaccination
 These influenza vaccinations usually keep on changing depending on
the nature and type of the disease. The high rate of transformation
of viruses does not allow the protection to stay for more than few
years. The conformation of the breed of the virus which is most
likely to circulate in the coming year is generally been confirmed
by the World Health Organisation such that the pharmaceutical
companies can quickly develop the new vaccinations required by the
specific breed of viruses.
The avian influenza is a specific vaccination developed to protect
the poultry. This is a very strong and influential vaccination as it
works against several breeds of viruses together either in an
attempt to completely exterminate the epidemic or as a part of the
precautionary strategy.
The whole procedure of formulation as well as the production of
millions of vaccines to fight against the seasonal epidemics takes
around six months of time. There is a big possibility where you
might get infected before vaccination with the very breed of virus
that the vaccination is supposed to protect you against, as the
immunisation process takes 2 weeks of time to become effective.
Apart from the seasonal influenza vaccinations, the researchers are
presently engaged in developing a vaccine which would fight against
the virulent influenza. On successful development and production of
this vaccination, millions of lives could be saved if an influenza
epidemic breaks out. As time is limited for this process, the
researchers are looking to use the non egg based option and is
expected to produce results even faster.
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