Cook Children’s Stocks Up On Flu Shots For Upcoming Season
First case of Flu B already diagnosed. Vaccine available at primary care offices.
The flu season has already begun at Cook Children’s. In late August, a patient was diagnosed with Flu B, the earliest case in at least three years, and physicians expect this to be only the beginning.
With the upcoming season, now is the time to get your child’s flu vaccines.
Only flu shots will be given this year to protect kids from becoming sick. This is due to recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) after last year’s FluMist was found to have failed against certain strains of the flu.
But parent’s shouldn’t worry, Cook Children’s has increased its doses of the Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine (flu shot) for its primary care offices.
“Even in bad years, the flu vaccine continues to provide the best layer of protection against this deadly disease,” said Justin Smith, M.D., a Cook Children’s pediatrician. “Last year’s injectable flu vaccine was 50 percent effective in preventing disease which means thousands of people were protected.”
The AAP recommends children ages 6 months and older be immunized against influenza every year. Previously, the CDC and AAP had recommended either form of flu vaccine – the inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) that is given by injection and is approved for all patients older than 6 months, or LAIV which is given by intranasal spray and was approved for healthy patients ages 2 through 49 years. But that is no longer the case. Only the injection is recommended.
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