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Flu vaccines recommended for people with Multiple Sclerosis
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A nurse fills a syringe with the H1N1 vaccine.
Catching the bug that's going around is inconvenient for anyone but for people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) it's particularly troublesome. Getting the flu means not only dealing with nausea, aches, and vomiting it also means possibly experiencing MS symptoms as well. During an illness the immune system is hyper active. For people with MS, the immune system can't always tell the difference between invaders and our own healthy cells. With that in mind the National MS Society recommends the flu shot as safe for “individuals who are on any of the disease-modifying medications” but there is an important guideline to follow.
There are 2 different kinds of vaccine; a “deactivated or killed” virus that is given by injection and a weakened, live virus that is given through a nasal spray. For MS patients, especially those on drugs that suppress the immune system, the advice is to get the deactivated vaccine. One of the several reasons for that recommendation is “the interactions between live vaccines and disease-modifying medications is not known.”
In the case of H1N1 both a deactivated and live vaccine are available. With supply limited the CDC has a priority list of individuals who most need the vaccine. Having MS does not automatically qualify someone as “high risk”. However, MS patients are encouraged to “discuss with their neurologist whether they should get the deactivated H1N1 vaccine because catching the flu would put them at a greater risk of exacerbation or [if] their MS symptoms are severe enough to put them at risk for flu complications.”
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