With this year’s flu shot tweaked to offer more protection than last year’s formula, health officials are calling on everyone to get vaccinated now.
The influenza vaccine is reformulated every year to match mutating viruses, and this year’s shot is expected to provide better protection this flu season.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said a minimum of 171 million doses of flu vaccine are expected in 2015. CDC director Tom Frieden urged Americans to “just get one” no matter which flu vaccine it is.
Last year was dubbed "a bad year for flu” due to a mutated strain of Type A flu – known as H3N2 – that the vaccine did not protect against.
The H3N2 strain is still making rounds in other countries and in low levels in the United States, according to Frieden, adding that the strains in this year’s vaccine appear to match so far.
Experts emphasized the importance of the flu shot especially for vulnerable groups such as the elderly. Those aged 65 and above are recommended to consider newer high-dose flu shots containing about four times as much antigen as the regular shot.
Flu-related hospitalizations of seniors in 2014 were the highest recorded by the CDC in the decade.
The health department of Staten Island, New York, also reminded parents of children aged 5 and below that their kids will need the flu shot before the year ends. The mandate will be enforced starting January 2016 for the said age group attending day care or preschool.
Flu vaccines are usually 50 to 60 percent effective.
An estimated 40 million of the flu doses this year have already been shipped to health practitioners, drugstores and other locations.
It takes about two weeks to reap the full benefit of the vaccine, which is mostly covered by private and government insurance but costs $32 to $40 when paid on one’s own.
Although there is no way to predict when an outbreak begins, the flu usually strikes most from December to February. Only around half of Americans get an annual shot for the bug that kills about 24,000 individuals in the country every year, said the CDC.
