Seasonal flu shots are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The seasonal flu shot is a yearly vaccine administered to protect against the flu, or influenza.
In the United States, flu shots are recommended for everyone ages 6 months and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The flu can be a very serious illness, especially in young children, adults ages 65 and over, those with underlying health conditions, and pregnant women.
The flu shot is the best way to protect yourself and family from the flu, the CDC says.
Strains of the flu virus are constantly changing, so a new flu vaccine is made each year. Scientists make the vaccine before the flu season starts by predicting which flu strains are likely to be the most common during the upcoming season.
“Since the flu virus frequently drifts in its genetic composition, you have to reformulate the vaccine, and this is one of the reasons that people have to [get a flu shot] on an annual basis,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a preventive medicine and infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
What kinds of flu shots are there?
Flu shots protect against three or four strains of flu virus. Trivalent flu vaccines protect against two influenza A strains — H1N1 and H3N2 — and one influenza B strain. Quadrivalent flu vaccines — offered for the first time in the 2013-2014 flu season — protect against the same strains as the trivalent vaccine, as well as an extra influenza B strain.
In addition to the standard-dose flu vaccine given through a needle, flu shots are available in several different forms. These include a high-dose version for those ages 65 and older; a “cell-based” version that’s grown in animal cells rather than hen’s eggs and is approved for people ages 4 and older; a “recombinant” vaccine that does not use the full influenza virus or chicken eggs in the production process and is approved for people ages 18 and older; and a nasal spray, which is approved for healthy people ages 2 to 49, but not for pregnant women.
There is also a needle-free flu shot, delivered by a so-called jet injector, which uses a high-pressure stream of fluid to inject the vaccine, the CDC says. It is approved for adults ages 18 to 64.
Flu vaccines for the 2019 to 2020 season
The composition of the 2019-2020 flu shot will be slightly different from last season’s flu shot. Specifically, there will be a different strain of the H1N1 virus and a different strain of the H2N3 virus in this season’s flu shot, compared with last season’s shot. According to the CDC, the 2019-2020 trivalent flu shot will contain the following strains of the flu virus:
Sourse: www.livescience.com
