Real Stories of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases: Allison’s Experience with Influenza (“Flu”)

While most of us have had the flu or know someone who has had it, we often do not realize how serious it can be. Each year in the United States, flu infections result in hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths from related complications. Specific populations including infants, people with weakened immune systems, people from racial and ethnic minority groups, and older adults are at the highest risk of complications from the flu. However, the flu can be prevented through simple actions like vaccination. Allison shares her harrowing experience with the flu, her lifelong complications, and why she feels it’s so important that everyone get vaccinated.