Families Urged to Protect Children from Flu

Influenza Vaccination

Flu, or influenza, is of particular concern for children. Each year approximately 20,000 children are hospitalized with the flu, and more than 100 children die from this disease most years.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), everyone 6 months and older should get vaccinated for the flu each and every year.

As the season turns from fall to winter, many holiday displays replace pop-up flu vaccine clinics. Yet flu season is not over — it has barely begun. In the 35 years that the CDC has monitored influenza, February has been the most common month for peak flu activity, including during the 2010-2011 flu season.

To share this important information and educate families, Families Fighting Flu is joining the CDC during the annual National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) — an observance to promote the importance of flu vaccination as the single best preventative measure against this disease. NIVW activities remind people that it is not too late to vaccinate against the flu.

“With the holidays approaching, you may feel like you don’t have time to get vaccinated, but taking a little time to get the flu vaccine now can save you days, even weeks, recovering from the flu later,” says Dr. Anne Schuchat, Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service Director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Families Fighting Flu is a nonprofit volunteer-based advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the lives of children.

In the picture above: Flu survivor Luke Duvall spent 34 days in the hospital.