YUMA, Ariz.- It’s that time of year again where kids and adults go in to get their annual flu shot, but some people are worried that this years influenza vaccine will not be effective like it was last year. According to WEB M.D. last years flu vaccine was only 18% effective.
The Centers for Disease Control create a new vaccine every year. They take into account what strains were prevalent the year before and data to what strains will be relevant for the following year.Typical U.S. flu vaccines are trivalent meaning they are made up of three strains and each strain is a virus that is expected to circulate during flu season. So even though there is a lot of science going on to put create the influenza vaccine, the CDC basically takes a guess at what would work best.
That is what caused last years vaccine to be not very effective. Their was a mutated strain in the vaccine that greatly reduced effectiveness in the vaccine.
The CDC say this years set of flu shots are looking much better and are expected to be 60% effective.
Dr. Susan McConnell a pharmacist at Fry’s food store says they are seeing about 25 people of all ages coming in every day to get their flu shot which is more than they had last year.Dr. McConnell also says it is still very important to get the flu shot now before getting exposed to the virus from other people. Once the virus has entered the body a flu shots chance of working decreases.