Time for flu shots -- for the young, too

November offers plenty of time for healthy people to avoid flu's misery, reassures vaccine specialist Dr. Walter Orenstein of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It takes only two weeks after vaccination to reap full protection, and influenza typically doesn't start causing outbreaks until late December or January. But the schedule ensures that if influenza strikes abnormally early, those most at risk of dying will be protected.

Don't feel it's OK to skip the vaccine just because recent flu seasons have been mild, Orenstein cautions. Even in a mild season, up to 20 percent of the U.S. population gets the flu, 114,000 people are hospitalized and 20,000 die. Despite that toll, only about a third of people with asthma or other flu-worsening conditions get vaccinated each year.

"If I were rolling the dice, I would err on the side of getting vaccinated because the likelihood of continuing to have mild seasons is very slim," Orenstein said.

Why this winter's focus on babies? Recent research suggests children under age 2 are as likely to be hospitalized with flu complications such as pneumonia as are people over age 65 -- the age group long thought to be at highest risk. The CDC is working to confirm that, but meanwhile decided to encourage vaccinating babies age 6 months to 2 years.

The vaccine can't be given to younger infants, whose family and caregivers are urged to get vaccinated themselves so they don't spread the virus to newborns.

While the elderly are at high risk of death from flu, hospitalizing babies usually saves them. But it's traumatic and exposes babies to unnecessary antibiotics until doctors confirm they have viral flu, not a bacterial infection, says Dr. Leonard B. Weiner, pediatric infectious disease chief at the State University of New York, Syracuse. Worse, germ-filled hospitals expose already weak babies to other infections.

The American Academy of Pediatrics encouraged pediatricians to stock vaccine for more babies than ever this fall. But it will be next year before flu shots are included in the federal program that provides childhood vaccines for free to the needy, Orenstein says.

"This year some of the poor children will have more difficulty," he acknowledged.

Parents can check local health departments or charity-run vaccine clinics to see if any offer free or reduced-price toddler doses. Flu shots typically cost $20.

Older children can get vaccinated, too, if parents just want to avoid flu's misery and lost school. The two-dose requirement is for any child under age 9 who's getting a first-ever flu vaccination, because their response to the initial shot isn't protective enough. Each flu season afterward requires only one shot.

Another good protection: Wash your hands frequently. Someone who covers a sneeze with a hand and then shakes your hand has just spread a lot of germs.

And no, you can't get the flu from the vaccine, which is made from dead influenza virus. But lots of other cold viruses lurk in the fall, which people sometimes mistakenly think are the flu.