For the infants, it is highly recommended that the flu shot be administered on the front, outside of the thigh. Injection site reaction conducted for clinical studies on Afluria has actually found to be less common in the younger children than in the older ones. For children in the age group of six months to three years, pain, redness and swelling was observed in 37, 38 and 21 percent respectively. Redness and swelling are the obvious symptoms while pain in infants is difficult to identify and is often confused with fussiness and irritability. In children, flu shots are often accompanied with flu-like illness wherein which the symptoms are usually found to be mild and brief than compared to the symptoms of the illness. For Afluria, frequent symptoms in children have also been noted to be runny nose, irritability, cough, loss of appetite, fever, etc. One of the recognized complication from the flu shot is the life-threatening allergic reaction known as anaphylaxis which mainly results due to the second exposure to an allergen and as infants usually receive two flu shots, the occurrence of anaphylaxis is usually characterized with the second injection.

Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelities (ADE) is a very severe but rare reaction to that of the flu shot which is usually characterized with abrupt onset of fever, muscle weakness, increased or decreased reflexes, vision changes and impaired balance. Fever due to ADE might last only for a few weeks but the neurological deficits caused by this may last for months or even years. However, occurrence of ADE is very rare and is mainly believed to occur due to the interaction of the flu shot and a person’s immune system.

However, most of the people are scared about the possible side effects of flu shot, but the truth of the matter is that the side effects from flu shots are quite minimal and are not of a major concern. In fact, if you do not have any specific conditions or allergic reactions, then anyone over six months can receive the flu shots. The occurrence of flu is predominant during the winter season and as the vaccination will take two weeks to take effect, it is highly recommended that you get your flu shots early in the season. Many of the people wrongly assume that the side effects of the flu shot is to develop a bout of the flu which is just a myth. However, the purpose of the shot is to make sure that you do not develop flu at any cost. The common side effects from the flu vaccine injection in adults generally includes mild soreness, redness, and swelling at the spot of injection, fever, aches, runny nose, nasal congestion or cough, sore throat, chills, weakness or tiredness and very rare side effects may also include life-threatening allergic reaction. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) strongly recommends that people over the age of 50, residents of nursing homes or chronic care facilities, adults and children with heart and lung problems and with chronic metabolic diseases and pregnant women should necessarily get immunized with flu shots.

Local side effects from the immunization of approved H1N1 vaccines have been reported although no deaths or serious adverse effects have been reported so far from the vaccination. In fact, statistics reveal that almost 44 percent of the participants did report mild side effects from the first dose of swine flu vaccine within seven days after the vaccine was administered. One of the most common side effects which has been observed in the participants is the pain at the injection site. Most of the reactions were found to be moderate and mild and were also resolved within 72 hours. There have been reported cases of local adverse events at the the site where the injection has been administered and these have pointed to side effects such as tenderness, pain, redness, hardening of the skin, swelling and bruising as well. Systemic effects have also been reported and less than one percent of the participants have been known to experience adverse reactions due to immunization such as malaise, muscle pain, nausea, chills, fever and vomiting. Researchers have also evaluated the possibility of the participants to be affected with neurological problems such as the Guillian-Barre syndrome or problems related to the immune system or other serious reactions but there have been no such incidences or reports pointing to such facts.

However, all the recent reports have been pointing to the fact that there are no serious side effects related to swine flu vaccine side effects and as there are more benefits related to this immunization, it is always better and wise to be vaccinated with this vaccine.