Getting the flu vaccine is the best way to protect yourself from the influenza virus. Health officials recommend that a person receive the annual flu vaccine to become protected from the latest flu strain; an antigenic drift or a small change in the influenza virus can occur every year. A person that has been vaccinated, however, can still contract the flu virus. This is because the individual could have been exposed to the flu virus before receiving the vaccine, or that the individual could have contracted a new strain of flu virus that was not included in the annual flu vaccine.

According to the CDC, all of the 2015-2016 trivalent influenza vaccine is made to protect against these viruses:

• A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
• A/Switzerland/9715293/2013 (H3N2)-like virus
• B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus. (This is a B/Yamagata lineage virus)

The trivalent vaccine protects against two Influenza A viruses and one Influenza B virus. The quadrivalent vaccine provides protection against an additional Influenza B virus: B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus.

Good health and cleaning practices can also help reduce your chances of contracting influenza:

• Avoid contact with sick/infected people
• Stay home to prevent spreading the flu
• Clean and wash surfaces and hands with cleaners and soap that has an influenza claim

When disinfecting and sanitizing surfaces, make sure the contact time is sufficient. For example, if a product says to “use enough product to allow treated surfaces to remain wet for 15 seconds”, this means that you may need to apply the product more than once to allow that surface to remain wet for 15 seconds for it to effectively disinfect or sanitize what it claims to do.

For a listing of Multi-Clean liquid disinfectants or disinfecting wipes that are effective against influenza, please visit Multi-Clean’s Infection Control product line.

For more information about influenza, check out the Infection Control webpage, or the CDC webpage.