Influenza Vaccine: Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones

This year’s publicly funded influenza vaccine will be offered in two phases, with the first phase starting on October 1. Target groups include preschool children, people over 65, medical and health workers, and epidemiology prevention workers.

Why Get Vaccinated?

Director of Infectious Diseases Department Zhang Qiyin noted that the most serious complications of influenza can be pneumonia and respiratory failure, and even complications of heart disease, cardiovascular disease, brain or subsequent fungal infection, which are difficult to treat. The key to preventing severe influenza is to encourage eligible individuals to receive public funding for vaccination.

Who Should Get Vaccinated?

Hu Songlin, director of the Department of Family Medicine, pointed out that the current priority targets in the first phase include medical and health workers, elderly people over 65 years old, caregivers and nursing home workers, long-term care institutions, and children over 6 years old and before entering primary school, pregnant women, high-risk chronic patients with underlying diseases, patients with BMI ≧30 and patients with rare diseases and major injuries.

Phase 2 includes adults ages 50 to 64 who do not have high-risk chronic diseases.