Daily HealthBeat Tip

Lots of shots

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I'm Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

There's still good reason to get a flu vaccination - influenza typically doesn't peak until January or later. And there's plenty of vaccine to go around. Plus, November 27th through December third is National Influenza Vaccination Week.

Not that people needed to wait. At 16 places in the Navajo Nation in Arizona and New Mexico, almost 24,000 people got vaccinated in one day.

Why so many? One reason was to see if health officials could do large numbers of vaccinations in an emergency. Another was that it's flu season.

Dr. Glenn Mitchell is with HHS' Indian Health Service.

"It's certainly a necessity these days for people who have high risk, and that's elders, people with chronic diseases (that) interfere with the immune system especially, and children. But the truth is we should all have flu shots." (13 seconds)

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: November 28, 2006

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