Australians and the flu
April 18, 2012
MANY Australians avoid flu
vaccinations and instead rely on
garlic, hand sanitiser and chicken
soup to stay healthy, according to a
new Priceline survey.
The survey found that 52% of
Aussies chose to protect themselves
from the flu by using Vitamin C and
multivitamins, whilst 42% chose
hand sanitiser and regular
handwashing, and 18% eat garlic.
Other popular preventative
methods included avoiding public
transport (18%), eating chicken
soup (10%), avoiding the gym (4%)
and wearing a face mask (4%).
“There’s so much conflicting
information out there about what is
the most effective way of
preventing the flu,” said Bronwyn
Flanagan, Pharmacy Services
Manager for Priceline.
“Research shows that vaccines
are 70% to 90% effective in healthy
people under 65, and in over-65s
vaccines greatly reduce the risk of
hospitalisation from respiratory
illnesses,” she added.
Key reasons that Australians
chose not to get the flu vaccine,
according to the survey results
included: concerns that the flu
vaccine is more dangerous than the
flu (19%), not prone to getting the
flu (16%), too expensive (13%), not
enough time to get it (10%) and
fear of needles (9.7%).
“The risk of adverse reactions,
which is really very minor, is far
outweighed by the much more
serious risk of flu, which causes an
estimated 15,000 deaths and
18,000 hospitalisations in Australia
each year,” Flanagan said.
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