How to stay healthy this winter

Your province's flu vaccine policy
Whether you're eligible to receive a publicly funded flu vaccine depends on where you live. In Ontario, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories the flu vaccine is free to all residents. At a minimum, other provinces offer free vaccines to people 65 and over, residents of nursing homes and other chronic care facilities, health-care workers, as well as children and adults with various chronic conditions, including HIV, heart disease, asthma, diabetes, renal disease and cancer.

In addition, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia provide free vaccinations to babies between the ages of six and 23 months.

For the latest information about the flu vaccine and its availability where you live, visit the Canada Health Portal at chp-pcs.gc.ca.

You can't get the flu from the vaccine because it's made from inactivated or killed viruses from the three strains predicted to be in widest circulation, says Lim. Since the virus strains change every year and protection from the vaccine decreases over time, it'simportant to be immunized every year.

While the vaccine is harmless, some people may experience a mild reaction at the local injection site or a mild fever because their immune system is stimulated. In order to reduce these symptoms, consider taking acetaminophen just before you get a flu shot, says Lim.

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization suggests that only people with a serious acute illness and a fever should have their vaccine deferred, and that all others, including those with mild upper respiratory tract infections, such as the common cold, be given the vaccine. However, Lim and many other health professionals prefer that you get vaccinated when you feel 100 per cent. "Not because the vaccine will make you worse, but because if you feel under the weather and the shot makes your arm hurt, you may say 'That was horrible, I'm never getting the shot again,'" says Kim.

As for the viruses that cause the common cold and the gastrointestinal upsets sometimes referred to as "stomach flu," there is, unfortunately, no vaccine to protect you.

Why do we get sick in winter?

In Canada the prime season for colds and flu runs from November to March, with the number of reported flu cases peaking in January and February. This is not to say that you can't catch the flu or a cold during the summer. You can. It's just that during the winter, people tend to spend more time indoors close to one another, which makes it easier for viruses to spread.

"As the weather changes and people begin to stay inside, there is a greater risk of transmission," says Callery.

To protect yourself and your family from influenza, the experts strongly recommend that you get immunized. Each year the World Health Organization determines which three strains of influenza are the most likely to be in wide circulation during the coming winter. Based on this information, a vaccine is formulated and produced to protect against these influenza types. The vaccines to be marketed in Canada for the 2005-06 flu season contain A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1), A/New York/55/2004 (H3N2) and B/Jiangsu/10/2003 virus antigens.

"My advice," says Callery, "is that soon after Thanksgiving you begin to think vaccine for Christmas. The reason we recommend an early start -- the vaccine campaign begins in mid- to late October -- is that it takes 10 days to two weeks for the vaccine to give you full protection." If you haven't got your shot, yet, better late than never.