Flu Season Starting Slowly

(November 16, 2008) - The flu season is starting slowly this year. (Read about "Influenza") The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that 15 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico have had some cases of flu so far. Those states are all over the country. They include: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Utah. The rest of the states have yet to report any kind of flu outbreaks, according to CDC.

CDC is urging people to get a flu vaccine as soon as possible. Vaccine manufacturers are projecting that as many as 143 million to 146 million doses of influenza vaccine will be produced for use in the United States during the 2008-09 influenza season. This is an all-time high supply of vaccine, making it possible for more people than ever to seek protection from the flu. Yearly flu vaccination should begin as soon as vaccine is available and continue throughout the influenza season, into December, January, and beyond. Influenza season most often peaks in February, but influenza viruses can continue to cause illness into the spring. For people not able to get their influenza vaccine in the fall, vaccination in December, January and beyond is beneficial in most years, according to CDC.

Last year the vaccine wasn't as targeted as in many other years. The major types of flu that made people sick last year were different from the ones in the vaccine. This year the flu vaccine protects against the three main flu strains that research indicates will cause the most illness during the flu season. This year's influenza vaccine contains three new influenza virus strains.

They are:

• A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like virus
• A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus
• B/Florida/4/2006-like virus

CDC says the 2008-09 influenza vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses, or it can make your illness milder if you get a related but different influenza virus strain.