H1N1 FluMist - the Nasal Spray that Keeps on Giving

by Sherry Tomfeld
Associated Content
Oct. 11, 2009

Everyone has to be responsible for their own decisions. If you are afraid of catching the H1N1 flu this year. You may be pondering whether to get a flu shot or using the
H1N1 FluMist. The FluMist is administered into your nostrils. Before making your final decision, you may want to ask some questions and think of some consequences to taking the H1N1 FluMist nasal spray.

The H1N1 FluMist is made with "live" virus. This means that the H1N1 flu will be a part of the nasal spray formula. It's supposed to be just enough to start your immunity to build defenses to it. The shot is supposed to be a killed virus.

If you take the H1N1 FluMist, you will in fact become a carrier of the H1N1 flu. Information on this drug states that you can and will shed the virus for up to 21 days. That means as you are visiting with your elderly family members, or shopping in the isles of your grocery store or sitting in church with young children and people with immune problems, YOU are going to be shedding the virus H1N1 germs.

If you are a person that cannot tolerate the shot or the FluMist for the H1N1 flu, you are a sitting duck when it comes to being around people who have taken the FluMist. The use of FluMist is for people ages 2 - 49. How many people do you come into contact each day that don't fit the age range?

Drugs.com says that you should be careful when coming into contact with "FluMist with anyone who has a weak immune system caused by disease (such as cancer, HIV, or AIDS), or by certain medicines such as steroids, cancer chemotherapy, or radiation treatment. A person with a weak immune system can become ill if they have close contact with you after you have recently received a an influenza vaccine." Pregnant women are also on this list of people who should NOT use FluMist.

What happens when anything gets in your nose? You sneeze! Please be a responsible user of the FluMist and cover your face when you sneeze and cough. Remember, you are passing the H1N1 flu germs. The flu is passed from person to person with the sneezing, the coughing and germs from your hands. So if you take FluMist for the H1N1 flu, please practice good hygiene for the rest of us and wash, wash, wash your hands!

If you take the H1N1 FluMist nasal spray, please read up on it. Please ask questions about it. And please be a responsible user of the FluMist. We're all counting on you out here!