NEW YORK, Sep 15 (Reuters) -- Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, are urging diabetics to get flu shots before the flu season begins in November.
People with diabetes are three times more likely to die from influenza (flu) than those who do not have diabetes -- "yet more than half of people with diabetes did not get a flu shot in a recent year," according to a CDC statement.
"People may be unaware that diabetes can make their immune system more vulnerable to severe complications from flu including death," said Dr. Frank Vinicor, the CDC's director of the Division of Diabetes Translation. "A flu shot is an easy, safe, and preventive measure that people with diabetes should take to protect themselves from the risks associated with the flu."
Tamara Kicera of the Adult Vaccine Preventable Diseases Branch of the CDC's National Immunization Program notes that flu shots do not contain live virus, so they cannot cause the flu. "Getting a flu shot is essential for people with diabetes," she said. "For other people, such as family members of people with diabetes, the shot not only protects them from the flu, it can help them avoid passing the flu along to their loved ones."
CDC officials also recommend that diabetics be vaccinated with a pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine to protect them against the most common form of pneumonia. Diabetics who come down with pneumococcal pneumonia are at increased risk for complications such as renal failure.
About 16 million Americans have diabetes -- but the CDC estimates that one third of cases have not been diagnosed. Each year, between 10,000 and 30,000 people with diabetes die from the complications of the flu or pneumonia.
