Noting that the World Health Organization (WHO) has also said swine flu will most likely peak in December and January, Akdağ said the first 15 days of December will be very important because the pandemic will peak during the next two months and start to decline only after that. Professor Şadi Yenen, a lecturer at İstanbul University’s Çapa Medical Faculty highlighted the importance of entering January with a strong immune system.
“The pandemic is expected to increase significantly in January and February. Therefore, people need to get the vaccine in December to be prepared and immunized against the virus in January. I recommend that those who are in the risk group as well as young children get the vaccine when they find it because there are not enough vaccination shots for everyone even if they wanted it. Dec. 15 is considered a critical date to be immunized against the virus when the pandemic peaks,” Yenen said.
Dr. Özcan Nazlıcan of İstanbul Haseki Teaching and Research Hospital also highlighted the importance of December and said: “The flu is expected to peak during those months. If people get the vaccine before it peaks, the number of people who will get infected will decrease.” Pointing out that people remain hesitant about the shot and that many parents do not want to get their children vaccinated, Özcan noted that she was in favor of getting the vaccination and said: “I support it because the virus can cause serious problems in even young and healthy people.
In other words, an individual does not necessarily have to have a serious or chronic illness to be affected by it. But if people do have previous illnesses and they get the swine flu on top of that, the result tends to be more severe. But the virus can cause serious pneumonia in young and healthy people as well. That is what happened during World War I. Close to 50 million were infected, and 20 million young people died. The majority of those who died had a serious case of pneumonia. It is for this reason that getting the vaccine is important. The side effects are the same as any other vaccine or flu shot. It has no other additional side effects.”
