CDC urges early vaccinations to fight flu this year

The flu was everywhere last year. A Centers for Disease Control doctor said the past flu season was one of the deadliest.

So the CDC is urging people to act now, just before the October start of the 2018-19 flu season, and get vaccinated. That advice applies even to people who delayed a few months into the previous flu season and were vaccinated earlier this year.

Some of the age ranges for certain vaccines have been lowered and some vaccines were reformulated to better prevent currently circulating viruses.

Getting a vaccine doesn’t mean you won’t get the flu, but if you do get sick it could be less severe, experts say.

A 2007 CDC study found that the flu vaccination significantly reduced a child’s risk of dying from influenza. The study analyzed data from four flu seasons from 2010 to 2014 and found that “flu vaccination reduced the risk of flu-associated death by half, or 51 percent, among children with underlying high-risk medical conditions and by nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, among healthy children.”

Vaccines to fight the flu can also protect women during and after pregnancy and protect a baby after delivery, the CDC said.

The push to take the flu seriously is especially relevant given the severity of the recent season. Vaccines are available at pharmacies and most doctors’ offices.

“The 2017-18 season was the first season to be classified as a high severity across all age groups,” the CDC reported. The flu-like-illness activity increased in November, “reached an extended period of high activity during January and February nationally, and remained elevated through the end of March,” the CDC reported.