The flu is now in Georgia

Sporadic flu activity has been reported in 35 states, as well as Puerto Rico.

“We are definitely in better shape than were were this time a year ago”, McDonald.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone six months and older get a flu vaccine each year. Hawaii and the USA territory of Guam had reported regional activity.

They are testing to see how well they can handle a major public health event. Seasonal influenza vaccination reduces the likelihood of becoming ill with influenza or transmitting influenza to others.

How effective the vaccine is in preventing the flu depends on how good a match it is to the strains of flu virus circulating that year.

This year’s vaccine is expected to provide 40 to 60 per cent protection against H3N2 and 65 per cent protection against various strains of influenza B. Schaffner is also an infectious diseases specialist at Vanderbilt University Hospital. Deaths linked to flu vary from year to year but have gone as high as 49,000 in a year, the CDC says.

The campaign to get people vaccinated officially kicked off September 17 at the NFID Annual News Conference (http://www.nfid.org/newsroom/news-conferences/2015-news-conferences/2015-news-conference/press-release.pdf). They’re fighting the Health Department’s mandate that all public school students under 5 must get the flu vaccine.

The people who were least vaccinated in the last year were adults with age from 18 to 49 years.

They all agree to give their kids the other mandated vaccines. “So there’s still time for the laggards”.

Plenty of vaccine should be available, Grohskopf said. Manufacturers are expected to produce 170 million to 179 million doses. Last year’s flu hit the nation harder than years past. Flu-related hospitalizations of seniors were the highest recorded in the decade that CDC has counted.