H1N1 and Seasonal Flu

Two types of flu

Each winter, the seasonal flu makes its way through Alaska and the rest of the country. The seasonal flu typically hits Alaska in November or December and it usually peaks sometime in January through March. There are variations in each year's flu strains, but most adults usually have built up some immunity to the seasonal flu because of previous exposure. For most people, the seasonal flu results in a mild illness that lasts a few days. But the seasonal flu can be deadly for some people in high-risk groups, and about 36,000 Americans die from seasonal flu each year.

This year we have another type of flu making the rounds, the H1N1 (swine) flu that first arrived in Alaska in May 2009. The H1N1 flu is a type of pandemic flu, which means it is rare and most people haven’t been exposed to it in the past so they have little or no immunity. Even healthy people are at increased risk for serious complications from pandemic flu, and the symptoms can be more severe than what people see with the seasonal flu. Some types of pandemic flu can have major impacts on our society (for example, about 675,000 Americans died during the 1918 pandemic flu), but so far the H1N1 flu has been less severe than other pandemic flus.

Because there are two types of flu, there are two different vaccines. The seasonal flu vaccine will not protect you from the H1N1 flu, and the H1N1 vaccine will not protect you from the seasonal flu. SEARHC encourages its patients to get both flu vaccines when they are available, especially those patients that fall into high-risk groups.