It's that time of year again, when we can reasonably anticipate that, within the next few weeks and months, we will get a bout of the common cold. Worse yet, we might get 'the big flu'. It can be annoying when at Christmas we are laden, not with the gifts of love, but with aches, pain, fever and, runny and stuffy noses.

The flu is not new. The flu (short for influenza) is an unwelcome visitor at this time every year and will stay until about next March. The major difference between the flu and the common cold is that the former literally 'knocks you off your feet' with extreme exhaustion, fever and joint pains. Most people who get the common cold do not experience these symptoms.

Who should get the flu jab?

Any healthy person can ask the doctor for a flu jab as one bout of flu can result in severe complications such as pneumonia, bronchitis, ear infections and sinusitis. However, the flu jab is recommended for people whose immune systems do not function properly (meaning their resistance to flu is low). The risk of having complications with flu increases with age. Therefore, people over 60 are prime candidates for the flu vaccine. Other flu vaccine candidates include:

Persons with diabetes.

Children six-23 months old.

Immuno-compromised people such as those with HIV/AIDS, regardless of immune status.

People with diseases of the heart, lungs and kidneys.

People with asthma, emphysema or other respiratory conditions.

Caregivers of older or disabled people.

People who live in nursing or residential homes or other long-stay facilities.

Health-care workers.

People who work or live in a group homes are at great risk, since the flu virus can spread quickly and easily when people in high-risk groups live near to each other.

Vaccinate every year

You must get the flu vaccine every year since the strains of flu virus change each year. This usually leads the World Health Organisation to recommend a new type of flu vaccine each year. Scientists prepare a new vaccine each year, made from inactivated (dead) flu viruses and so the vaccine itself cannot cause the flu.

Sometimes, an unpredicted new strain of the flu virus might emerge after the vaccine has been made for that year. So, even if you get the flu vaccine, you still could become infected. But, the good news is that even if you get infected by that unpredicted strain of flu virus, the disease is usually milder than if you did not get the vaccination. So, the flu virus gives some level of protection.

Our bodies take about two weeks to respond to the flu vaccine. Therefore, if we got our flu jab today, we would be fully protected against the strains of viruses from which the vaccine is prepared by about Christmas Eve.

In Jamaica, there are two popular brands of the vaccine available for 2008-09 flu season - Fluarix and Vaxigrip. These vaccines have a shelf life lasting between September and March, to coincide with the flu season. These vaccines cost less than $700 and it will cost an additional $1,000 to $3,000 for a medical doctor to administer it.

Possible side effects

The flu vaccine is safe for most people, but it carries some possible side effects:

Soreness for up to two days around the area where the injection was given.

Fever, tiredness, sweating, headache or sore muscles for up to two days.

Allergic reactions. Talk with your doctor if you know that you are allergic to the flu vaccine, if you are allergic to eggs, egg proteins or chicken proteins (the flu vaccine is cultured in chick embryos) or if you are having a fever after getting the vaccine.

Don't allow the flu to dampen your Christmas spirits this year. Give yourself the gift of a flu vaccine. As for me, that's all I want for Christmas!

Dahlia McDaniel is a pharmacist and final year doctoral candidate in public health at the University of London; email: yourhealth@gleanerjm.com.