Getting the flu vaccine is the best way to protect yourself from the influenza virus. Health officials recommend that a person receive a flu shot every year. This is because an antigenic drift, or a small change in the virus, can occur each year, resulting in a new strain. Despite being previously vaccinated against influenza, a person’s natural antibodies would not be able to combat new strains. Therefore, to be fully protected from the seasonal flu, a person must receive a flu shot every year. A person that has been vaccinated, however, can still contract the flu virus, due to exposure to the flu virus before receiving vaccination, or contracting a new strain of flu that wasn’t included in the seasonal flu vaccine.

For the 2013-2014 flu season two types of flu vaccines were made available. The trivalent vaccine protects a person from two Influenza A and one Influenza B virus. The quadrivalent vaccine protects a person from two Influenza A and two Influenza B viruses.

Good health and cleaning habits 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 on influenza, please visit Multi-Clean’s Infection Control webpage.

For more information about influenza, check out Influenza Infection & Disease, or the CDC webpage.