FDA: There's Still Time for Patients to Get a Flu Shot

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 5, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- It's still not too late to get a flu shot, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Children and seniors tend to be most susceptible to flu. But sometimes a flu virus will affect more young and middle-aged adults. That appears to be the case this flu season, the agency said.

An unusually high number of severe respiratory illness in young and middle-aged Americans was reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in November and December, the FDA said in a news release. Many of those cases were caused by the H1N1 strain that affected more children and young adults than older adults during the 2009 pandemic. Protection against the 2009 H1N1 virus, which has circulated each year since the pandemic, is included in this year's vaccine, the FDA said.

"Influenza seasons and severity are often unpredictable. Annual influenza vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza among people 6 months of age and older," Marion Gruber, director of the FDA's Office of Vaccine Research and Review, said in a news release.

Federal health officials have previously reported that this year's vaccine is a good match for the circulating viruses.