HHS HealthBeat (October 18, 2007)

Millions of doses

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

There’s a flu vaccination waiting for you, so why wait for it?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects a record number of doses will be produced this year – 132 million.

With that much protection available, vaccinations should be easy to get. So CDC officials say people ought not to wait for flu season, while the vaccines are available earlier.

Not only can you protect yourself from the flu, you cut the chance that you’ll infect someone else – a family member, maybe.

Also, saying you got one last season doesn’t count. The director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Dr. Anne Schuchat:

``It’s important to get influenza vaccine every year because the vaccine is updated every year to deal with changing viruses, and because immunity doesn’t last more than a year.’’ (10 seconds)

Learn more at hhs.gov.

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

Last revised: May, 26 2008