This Tuesday marks the kick-off of the 2019 campaign against the flu in France. In addition to the novelty for about 12 million people called "at risk" - especially over 65 years - to be vaccinated directly by their pharmacist, it is the effectiveness of this inoculation that does not really seem to go you every year?
Efficiency between 30% and 50%
Contrary to what one might think, the flu vaccine is never 100% effective. Each year, WHO relies on the strains that circulate the most to decide its composition for the next epidemic. But this is not a decision that is taken at the last minute. For example, to ensure adequate production of vaccines, the WHO made its selection in February 2019. It is therefore sufficient for a strain of influenza to have mutated between the moment when the vaccine was manufactured and the epidemic, so that it loses some of its effectiveness. In recent years, its efficiency is around 30 to 50%.
But a real usefulness
If getting vaccinated does not prevent you from catching the flu, it still allows generally to have a less severe, with fewer complications. Not to mention that "the flu symptom is not necessarily due to the flu," says the microphone of Europe 1 Dr. Vincent Enouf, flu reference center to Pasteur. "There are other respiratory viruses that circulate, including rhinoviruses [mainly responsible for colds and rhinitis, note], which cause exactly the same symptomatology".
However, the influenza epidemic forces many millions of French to spend a few days bedridden and is mainly responsible for 8,000 to 15,000 deaths each winter. However, according to the experts, if the vaccination coverage reaches 75% of the over-65s, it would be possible to avoid up to 5,000 deaths per year.