Time to get your flu shot; you need just one this year

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

It’s flu-shot season already, and for the first time, health authorities are urging nearly everyone to get vaccinated. There is even a new high-dose version for people 65 or older.

What a difference a year makes: Crowds lined up for hours for scarce shots during last fall’s H1N1-flu pandemic, when infections peaked well before enough vaccine could be produced. This year, a record vaccine supply is expected — an all-in-one inoculation that promises protection against that swine-flu strain plus two other kinds of influenza.

Shipments began so early that drugstores are offering vaccinations amid their back-to-school sales.

But without last year’s scare factor, the question is how many people will heed the new policy for near-universal vaccination.

No more stopping to check if you’re on a high-risk list: A yearly dose is recommended for virtually everyone except babies younger than 6 months — the shot isn’t approved for tots that young — and people with severe allergies to the eggs used to brew it.

“Influenza is serious, and anyone, including healthy people, can get the flu and spread the flu,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Flu vaccines are the best way to protect yourself and those around you.”

The CDC was moving toward that policy even before last year’s pandemic brought home an inescapable fact: The flu virus doesn’t kill just grandparents, babies and people with weak lungs or hearts, although they’re particularly vulnerable. It also can kill healthy pregnant women,30-somethings and children.

Here are some questions and answers about flu:

Q. I got vaccinated against both seasonal and that so-called H1N1 flu last year, so why do I need vaccine this year?

A. It protects against a different strain of the H3N2-influenza family that has cropped up, as well as last year’s swine flu, part of the H1N1 family, and a Type B strain. Every year, a different flu vaccine is brewed to match the constantly changing flu strains that circle the globe.

Q. Why is there a new high-dose version for seniors?

A. Your immune system weakens with age, so it doesn’t respond as actively to a flu shot. Sanofi Pasteur’s Fluzone High-Dose quadruples the standard dose for people 65 and older.

This winter, scientists will track if that translates into less illness. Until that proof’s in, the CDC says it’s OK to choose either option.

Q. Will I need just one shot?

A. Most people will, but any children under 9 getting their first flu vaccine will need two, a month apart, to prime their immune systems.

Q. What if my child’s first vaccine was last year and she got one dose of seasonal and one dose of swine-flu vaccine?

A. She wasn’t primed enough and needs her two doses this year, said Dr. Michael Brady of Nationwide Children’s Hospital, who co-authored the American Academy of Pediatrics’ flu-vaccination guidelines out Monday.

Q. Will there be enough vaccine?

A. Manufacturers project 170 million doses. Obviously, that won’t cover the entire population, but the CDC knows its near-universal vaccination policy won’t spark a stampede for shots.

Q. Who’s at high risk from flu?

A. Young children, anyone 50 or older, anyone with chronic medical conditions such as asthma or heart disease, pregnant women. Also, health workers and caregivers of infants can infect the vulnerable unless vaccinated.