UAE doctors: Get your kids vaccinated against flu

UAE doctors: Get your kids vaccinated against flu

Paediatricians are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against the flu as soon as possible, ideally before wintertime. Medics see the maximum number of infections between August and February — a period widely regarded as the ‘flu season’. With Dubai schools set to return to from October 3, parents are expressing concern about their children’s health. But doctors told that getting an influenza shot is one way to keep kids safe, especially because the pandemic has not yet receded. Moreover, the symptoms for Covid-19 and the flu that getting infected can be confusing. Vaccines are a small inactive part of the virus that gets injected in the body. This stimulates the body’s immune system, producing flu-specific antibodies, doctors said. If individuals come across the real virus, the body already has antibodies, which protects them from getting infected entirely or may pass as a mild infection. Dr Manjunath M Nagalli, specialist paediatrician at Burjeel Specialty Hospital, Sharjah, said: “All children above the age of six months may take the flu shot to protect themselves from influenza. It is ideal that children get the jab by September or October — that is, before the start of the winter season." "With schools