Dreaded cold, wet and depressing winter months are nearly upon us, although it will only sink in when the clock goes back at the end of the month.
It is also time to take our annual flu jabs that protect us from the dreaded winter flu season when A & E and hospital beds are at a premium!
Some fifteen thousand people die every year during these winter months, as a direct result of flu epidemic. One cold comfort is that now we all can have flu jabs that can prevent or at least reduce the severity, saving us from hospital admission!
If you do not qualify for free jab that is now widely given to elderly, chronically sick at risk and children, others can take it at their local pharmacists with minimum cost everyone can afford.
School children and school classes are the super spreader of the disease. So they are now included in the group who get free jabs to prevent outbreak that would cost more in financial as well as human misery than the initial financial layout for flu vaccine.
Many elderly people prefer to spend winter months either in India or in East Africa, especially those who may have their children and other relatives residing in these tropical paradise!
But time will come when travelling long distance may become hindrance to health, as well as with reduce immunity, they could easily become victims of ongoing winter illnesses in India.
Kumudini Valambia
By email
