After the shortages and delays of flu vaccine the last few years, everyone was looking forward to an ample supply of seasonal flu vaccine this year.

Early demand and a push to make swine flu vaccine has led to some delays in making seasonal flu shots this year. Many pediatric offices are already running out of flu vaccine and may not get any more until November.

Who Needs a Flu Shot?

So who 'needs' a flu shot according to the latest recommendations?

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends a yearly flu shot for all children, especially those at high risk of complications from the flu, including:

• children aged 6 to 59 months
  
• pregnant women
• all persons aged 50 years and older
  
• residents of long-term care facilities
  
• children and adults with chronic health conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, seizures, immunodeficiency, etc.
  
• children and teens who are receiving long term aspirin therapy

Other people who should get a yearly flu shot include:

• health-care personnel who provide direct patient care
  
• household contacts and out-of-home caregivers of children aged < 5 years or other people who are at high risk of complications of the flu

But remember that with the latest recommendations, all children are supposed to get a flu vaccine now.

Remember that healthy kids over age two may be able to get FluMist, the nasal spray flu vaccine, instead of a flu shot though.

When Should You Get A Flu Shot?

Although it is usually recommended that you get a flu shot in October or November, because kids are going to need to get the swine flu shots too, experts now recommend that kids get their flu vaccine as soon as it becomes available. A limited supply may mean that you have to wait until late November or December though.

Flu Activity Reports

As of early-November, the CDC reports that flu activity has 'decreased slightly.' Of course, there is still a lot of flu out there, with widespread flu in forty-six states, but this has nothing to do with seasonal flu and is just because of the continued spread of swine flu.

Specifically, forty-six states reported geographically widespread influenza activity, Puerto Rico and four states reported regional influenza activity, the District of Columbia reported local influenza activity, Guam reported sporadic influenza activity, and the U.S. Virgin Islands did not report.

The CDC has also reported 156 influenza-associated pediatric deaths from swine flu this year.

Other flu related news includes that:

• you can follow flu activity report using Google flu trends, which is now reporting a high level of seasonal flu activity in the United States
• swine flu vaccines are now available
• Tamilfu and Relenza still work well for swine flu, but should just be used for high risk patients, such as those with chronic medical problems, young children, or those with severe flu symptoms that require hospitalization.

Swine Flu

Although most of us thought we got off easy last year with a mild flu season, reports of continued swine flu cases have many people worried.

There are now reports of over 503,536 cases of swine flu infections and at least 6,260 deaths around the world, including 98,000 hospitalizations and 3,900 deaths associated with influenza virus infection in the United States.

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