Grundy County joins the Iowa Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in encouraging all residents to get their yearly flu vaccination. “The flu vaccine is safe and it saves lives,” said Wendy Monaghan, Public Health Manager. “Healthy people, including healthy children and young adults, can get very ill from the flu and can spread the flu to others. By getting a yearly flu vaccine you can protect yourself from illness, and protect those around you.” It’s especially important to be vaccinated if you have regular contact with people more vulnerable to the complications of flu, including babies, children with asthma, and the elderly.

Grundy County Public Health will be offering flu clinics within Grundy County, anticipating beginning in Mid-September.

The CDC recommends annual influenza vaccinations for everyone 6 months of age and older. This year’s flu vaccine is plentiful and available in both the injectable (‘shot in the arm’) and mist (‘spray in the nose’) options; the vaccine protects against the three most common flu viruses expected to circulate this year.

Influenza is a respiratory illness that most often causes fever, headache, extreme tiredness, muscle pain, dry coughing, sore throat, and runny nose. In children, diarrhea sometimes accompanies the respiratory symptoms. The flu virus is spread when people who are ill cough or sneeze without covering their mouths and noses. Others get sick when they breathe in the air containing the flu

virus. A person can also get the flu by touching a surface or object (like a door handle) that has been touched by someone with the flu (who coughed into their hand), and then touching their own mouth, eyes, or nose.

For more information on influenza, visit www.idph.state.ia.us/Cade/Influenza.aspx?pg=FluHome.