Dean Cain
Actor, Father, and Asthmatic
Actor Dean Cain has asthma. While he may have been a great football player and appeared as Superman on the popular television series Lois and Clark, he knows he's no real-life superhero. He fears what influenza could do to his asthma if he got sick from this serious respiratory disease. So much so, in fact, that he gets immunized every year, and he takes his 6-year-old son, Christopher, with him.
People with asthma, like Dean, are recommended for immunization against influenza every year.1 The nation's health officials recommend yearly influenza vaccination for all people with asthma and for others who also have a chronic medical condition, such as diabetes, compromised immune systems and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a serious lung disease.1
Influenza prevention for people who live with or care for anyone within high-risk groups is critical, especially to help protect those who rely on others for their care, namely persons over 65 years of age as well as young children.
Parents have to learn about this infectious disease and they need to understand the risk influenza can present to their family—grandparents, healthy kids, as well as children who have a chronic condition should get the vaccine.