INFLUENZA (FLU) TEMPLATE MESSAGES
For Local Health Departments, Coalitions and other Immunization Stakeholders
These template messages are designed for local health departments, coalitions and other immunization
stakeholders for their educational efforts during the 2012-13 flu season. Feel free to customize them for
your local needs and target populations. They can be used to help draft a press release, web/newsletter
content, talking points, to craft Twitter or Facebook posts, to pitch radio or television PSAs, etc.
A. Influenza is a serious illness
1. Influenza (flu) is a contagious and dangerous disease. Flu and related
complications are the number eight cause of death in the United States.
Anyone can get sick from flu.
2. While the flu can make anyone sick, certain people are at a greater risk for
serious complications from the flu, causing hospitalization or even death,
such as:
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people 65 years of age and older
young children under 5, but especially younger than 2 years of age
pregnant women
people with certain health conditions, including chronic lung disease
(such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), diabetes
(type 1 and 2), heart, lung, neurologic or kidney disease, a weakened
immune system and certain other long-term medical conditions.
Those who are morbidly obese (BMI of 40 or greater)
3. Symptoms of influenza can include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy
nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people may also have
vomiting and diarrhea. People may be infected with the flu and have
respiratory symptoms without a fever.
4. Flu can cause high fever, pneumonia and worsen existing medical conditions.
It can cause diarrhea and seizures in children.
5. Each year up to 49,000 people die from flu and related complications and
over 200,000 require hospitalization in the U.S.
B. Flu vaccine is the best protection
1. Take time to get a flu vaccine. The first and most important step in protecting
against the flu is to get a flu vaccine each season.
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A flu vaccine reduces your risk of illness, hospitalization, or even death
and can prevent you from spreading the virus to others.
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Flu can affect people differently based on people’s immune systems.
Even healthy children and adults can get very sick from the flu. Anyone
with the flu can spread it to family and friends. Protect your family and
friends from the flu by getting yourself vaccinated.
2. Everyone 6 months of age and older is recommended to be vaccinated
against flu every year, even if they got vaccinated the year before.
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Some children 8 years of age and younger may need two doses of the flu
vaccine. Ask your doctor.
3. Vaccination is especially important for people at higher risk of severe flu and
their close contacts, including healthcare personnel and close contacts of
children younger than 6 months and pregnant women.
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Children younger than 6 months are at high risk of serious flu illness, but
are too young to be vaccinated. People, who care for them, including
new and expecting mothers, should be vaccinated instead.
4. Pregnant women have more chances for serious flu illness than women who
are not pregnant. But less than half of them (47%) get a flu shot.
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Pregnant women should get a flu shot to protect themselves and their
baby from serious flu pregnancy complications, like premature labor and
delivery.
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Millions of pregnant women have received flu shots for many years. Flu
shots are very safe for pregnant women and their babies.
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Flu shots during pregnancy protect baby even through the first months
after birth, when he is most at risk for serious problems and too young to
get a flu vaccine.
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When pregnant women get flu shots, they and their babies get flu less
often.
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Pregnant women can get a flu shot any time during their pregnancy.
5. Even young and healthy adults can catch the flu.
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A person’s protection from vaccination fades over time, so even if you
got a flu vaccine last year, you still need one this year.
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You can infect people with flu even before you feel sick. You may spread
flu to people who can get very sick from flu, including young children,
pregnant women and people with chronic conditions.
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Getting sick with flu may mean missing days of school, work, or other
activities.
6. Flu can spread rapidly in health care settings. Health care workers need flu
vaccine to protect themselves, their patients, and coworkers against flu.
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According to the CDC, approximately 67% of health care personnel
received the flu vaccine last flu season.
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As a health care worker, catching flu may mean missed days of work.
Other may need to step in to cover your duties.
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Getting vaccinated does not only protect you from flu, it also helps to
protect vulnerable patients, coworkers, and family members
7. While there are many different flu viruses, the flu vaccine protects against
the three viruses that research suggests will be most common.
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The 2012-2013 flu vaccine will protect against:
o an influenza A H3N2 virus,
o an influenza B virus, and
o the H1N1 virus that caused a pandemic in 2009
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This year’s flu vaccine contains two different strains that were not
part of the 2011-12 flu vaccine.
C. Take everyday actions to stop the spread of germs
1. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw
the tissue in the trash after you use it.
2. Wash your hands often with soap and water. If soap and water are not
available, use an alcohol-based hand rub.
3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth. Germs spread this way.
4. Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
5. If you are sick with flu–like illness stay home for at least 24 hours until you
are fever-free and feel normal again (except to get medical care or for other
necessities).
6. While sick, limit contact with others as much as possible to keep from
infecting them.
D. Flu vaccine is widely accessible
1. Ask your doctor or nurse for flu vaccine for you and your family.
2. Even if you don’t have a regular doctor or nurse, flu vaccines are offered in
many locations, including your health department, pharmacy, urgent care
clinic, and maybe your school, college health center, or work.
3. Find a flu vaccination clinic near you by visiting:
http://flushots.healthmap.org
E. Flu vaccine effectiveness
1. The effectiveness of flu vaccines can vary and depends, in part, on the match
between the viruses in the vaccine and the flu viruses that are circulating in
the community, as well as the age and health of the person being vaccinated.
2. The influenza vaccine is used to prevent flu illness, not to treat it.
3. Flu vaccines cannot give you the flu.
4. A flu vaccine protects against influenza. It will not protect against other
respiratory viruses that may have similar symptoms to the flu.
5. It takes about two weeks after vaccination for your body to protect against
the flu.
6. Flu vaccine can prevent illness. It can also lessen the severity of illness if you
are exposed to a flu virus that is related to the flu viruses in the vaccine.
7. Talk with a doctor before getting an influenza vaccine if you have had:
 a severe allergy to chicken eggs
 an allergic reaction to flu vaccines in past
 Guillain-Barré Syndrome (a severe paralytic illness, also called GBS)
8. People who have a moderate to severe illness should wait until symptoms
pass to get vaccinated.
9. For more information about the seriousness of influenza and the benefits of
influenza vaccination, talk to your doctor or nurse, visit www.cdc.gov/flu or
call CDC at 1-800-CDC-INFO.
F. Timing of vaccination against flu
1. Get vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available in your community, before
the start of flu season.
2. It’s impossible to know when flu will peak or how mild or severe flu season
will be. But getting a flu vaccine now will protect you throughout the flu
season.
3. People should get vaccinated from now through May.
4. As long as flu is still spreading, it’s not too late to get vaccinated, even in
January or later.
G. Take flu antiviral drugs if your doctor prescribes them.
1. If you get the flu, antiviral drugs can treat your illness.
2. Antiviral drugs are a second line of defense to treat the flu if you get sick.
3. Antiviral drugs are prescription medicines (pills, liquid or an inhaled powder)
and are not available over-the-counter.
4. Antiviral drugs are different from antibiotics. Antiviral drugs fight viruses in
your body. Antibiotics fight bacterial infections.
5. Not everyone who has flu symptoms needs antiviral drugs. Your doctor will
decide whether antiviral drugs are right for you.
6. Antiviral drugs can make illness milder and shorten the time you are sick.
7. Antiviral drugs are not a substitute for getting a flu vaccine. The flu vaccine is
the best way modern medicine currently has to protect against this serious
disease.
8. For more information about antiviral drugs, visit
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/antivirals/index.htm