INFLUENZA

Influenza is a serious viral illness whose effects worsen dramatically in people debilitated by advanced age or people of any age with a chronic illness. An average of 20,000 Americans––more than 90 percent of them age 65 or over––die from flu complication s each year. Another 100,000 or more––over half of them under age 65––require hospitalization, usually because of chronic respiratory problems such as asthma. The virus has a total body effect that disrupts functioning of many systems. During outbreaks, deaths increase not only from pneumonia but also from heart, kidney, and liver disease.

The government recommends flu shots for everyone age 50 or over and for all high-risk younger people. Consumers Union's medical consultants go further, recommending the shots for all adults. This position is based partly on large studies showing that the rates of sick days and respiratory illness drop 30 to 45 percent in healthy younger adults who have had the shots.

Because flu-virus strains mutate and shift from year to year, last year's injection won't necessarily protect against this year's flu. Every year, disease detectives from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) track outbreaks of influenza around the world to predict which strains are likely to strike the U.S. over the upcoming winter flu season.

In the 2000-2001 season, the system broke down when one of the vaccine strains proved particularly difficult to make and one manufacturer dropped out of the business. The resulting shortages hit at the height of the flu-shot season. Only good luck forestalled a flu disaster.

This season, the CDC expects another, but less severe, delay. If you can't get the vaccine during the optimal time frame of October and November, then get it later. Last year's flu didn't peak until the end of January, so people who were vaccinated in December were protected. It takes about two weeks for the vaccine to create maximal immunity.