{"id":34492,"date":"2020-10-22T22:15:43","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T16:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kashmir.today\/?p=34492"},"modified":"2020-10-22T22:15:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T16:45:43","slug":"flu-vaccine-reduces-risk-of-dying-from-covid-19-dak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=34492","title":{"rendered":"Flu vaccine reduces risk of dying from Covid-19: DAK"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Srinagar<\/strong>: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday said that flu vaccine would protect you from severe Covid-19 disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFlu shot would reduce your risk of dying from Covid-19 infection,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cA study on the elderly population in the United States found that a 10 percent increase in the flu vaccine coverage in an area can reduce Covid mortality in the area by 28 percent,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>DAK President said at least two other studies have indicated that flu shots provide protection against severe Covid-19 infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of these studies conducted in Italy indicated that areas in which more people took flu vaccine had a lower death rate from Covid-19 infection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn another study, researchers in Brazil found that a flu shot can reduce mortality by 20 percent when taken before the onset of Covid-19 and about 27 percent when the vaccine was given after the onset of Covid-19,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Nisar said flu vaccine trains the immune system of a person to quickly recognize and clear away any harmful organism including those not targeted by the vaccine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, vaccine produces protective neutralizing antibodies and specific T-cell response that could provide cross-protection against Covid-19 infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe could be facing a confluence this winter of a flu pandemic and a still raging Covid-19 pandemic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople can catch flu and Covid at the same time and that increases their risk of ending up in ICU or on a ventilator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat makes this year\u2019s flu vaccine vitally important,\u201d Dr Nisar said adding \u201cflu vaccine will reduce the risk of simultaneous infection and reduce the burden on health care system that is currently struggling from the Covid pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhile flu vaccination is recommended for all, it is especially needed in young children, elderly, pregnant women and people with underlying medical conditions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIdeally, people should get the vaccine by the end of October. However, getting vaccinated later can still be beneficial and vaccination should continue to be offered throughout the flu season even into January or later,\u201d said Dr Nisar.(KINS)<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday said that flu vaccine would protect you from severe Covid-19 disease. \u201cFlu shot would reduce your risk of dying from Covid-19 infection,\u201d said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan. \u201cA study on the elderly population in the United States found that a 10 percent increase [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}