THE month of January symbolizes a new beginning. We usually start by making our New Year?s resolutions in which staying healthy should easily top our list.

What better way to follow this than keeping a healthy and balanced diet, regular exercise, as well as getting immunized.

Dr. Lyndon Lee Suy, program manager of DOH National Center for Disease Prevention and Control and member of the Technical Working Group for Influenza Philippines, believes no one should risk the complications of potentially life-threatening illnesses with a vaccine-preventable disease.

?One is never too old to get immunized since it is a lifelong, life-protecting responsibility, he says.

For Lee Suy, the first quarter of the year is an excellent time for Filipinos to contemplate about preparing themselves against the coming onslaught of the flu season.

The doctor explains that flu is a highly contagious disease, spreading from person to person (sometimes people become infected by merely touching something with the flu viruses on it and then touching their mouth or nose).

Best protection

?The flu vaccine is your best protection against flu viruses. However, to be most effective, the vaccine needs to be given two to three months before the start of the flu season, which peaks from July to August (another peak, although minor, is observed between November and December),? Lee Suy explains.

Both common cold and the flu are caused by viruses, which makes differentiating a cold from the flu by symptoms difficult.

?Many people commonly and incorrectly confuse flu with the common cold. But in general, individual with the flu get high fever (39?C to 40?C), headache, severe cough, extreme fatigue, aches and pain,? describes Dr. Cecilia Montalban, president of the Philippine Society for Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Unlike a cold, letting a flu run its course could be dangerous as it may lead to more serious problems.

Complications of flu could include bacterial pneumonia (a significant health threat, particularly for young children and the elderly), ear infections, sinus infections, dehydration and worsening of chronic medical conditions, such as congestive heart failure, asthma, or diabetes.

While antibiotics are not effective against a flu virus, it may be used to treat flu complications such as secondary bacterial infections.

Aside from the young children and the elderly, other vulnerable individuals are residents of nursing homes and other facilities, people who suffer from diabetes and those with chronic heart or lung condition, including asthma.

Young children who come down with the flu?even if they don?t have any other health issues?are also likely to end up in an emergency room (a lot of them usually develop higher fever, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) while others may lead to longer hospitalization.

?This is why a flu shot is also recommended for household members who are always in close contact with young children such as their parents and older brothers and sisters, babysitters and other caregivers,? Montalban suggests.

A flu shot generally contains inactive (noninfectious and killed) viruses, the role of which is merely to warn the body about the virus threat.

Lee Suy says that composition of the vaccine changes each year and usually includes three of the most active viruses prevailing in the hemisphere as identified by the World Health Organization.

Different trend

Lee Suy explains that the Philippines used to have no seasonal pattern in the incidence of flu but nevertheless, adopted those of the northern hemisphere?s timing of vaccination, which is at the start of the ?ber? months.

But results of a five-year flu virus surveillance done from 1998 to 2003 by the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine reveal a different trend?flu peaks in July and August here in the Philippines. This is a trend observed in the southern hemisphere.

?From then on, the Philippines followed the southern hemisphere flu season timing of vaccination which begins in February,? Lee Suy says.

The timing of vaccine administration is important as this could stop or slow the spread of a possible global flu pandemic.

?We don?t want a repeat of the 1918 flu pandemic (commonly referred to as Spanish flu) that spread globally in little over a year and killed at least 50 million people, which is more deaths than World War I or the four years of Bubonic plague outbreak in the Middle Ages,? Montalban stresses.

It is never too late to include having an annual flu shot as a healthy habit starting this 2009. A flu shot could save your life or the lives of the ones you care for (to learn more about flu, one may visit www.bakuna.ph or ask your doctor).