1. Slideshow: Flu - 10 Foods to Eat When You Have the Flu
2. Natural Cold and Flu Remedies Slideshow Pictures
3. Take the Cold & Flu Quiz

Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

View Full Profile

Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

View Full Profile

The best chance for protection against seasonal (conventional) and pandemic flu is vaccination. The value for getting vaccinated is very high for many individuals and even for the world's population. For individuals, seasonal flu often causes about 36,000 deaths in the U.S., with about 200,000 people hospitalized every year. About 5%-20% of the U.S. population gets the seasonal flu each year and misses school, work, and vacation time, while productivity nationwide can decline. Seasonal flu takes the lives of our population 65 years of age and older; about 90%-95% of seasonal flu deaths occur in this age group. Without yearly seasonal flu vaccine, the illness and death rates would likely be much higher.

Pandemic flu in some instances can be far worse on world populations than seasonal flu. For example, the Spanish flu or 1918 flu pandemic killed about 40 million to 100 million people from 1918-1920. Commerce, economic systems, and travel were shut down in many areas of the world for months at a time during those years. In the recent H1N1 pandemic that began in Mexico in April 2009, the disease caused deaths "out of the usual flu season" and caused a shutdown in travel to Mexico that brought the country economic hardship. For many individuals, pandemic H1N1 flu was just a nuisance that makes people feel feverish and tired with sneezing and coughing that lasts for about a week; they recovered without any problems. For others, the pandemic H1N1 flu was disastrous and deadly. The H1N1 virus has behaved quite differently from the seasonal flu; it began in April 2009 (near the end of the seasonal flu season) and spread worldwide by September. H1N1 flu affected a different population than the seasonal flu; it caused the hospitalization and deaths of a markedly younger population (pediatric population, pregnant individuals, and young adults). Worldwide, H1N1 vaccine became available in limited amounts in late September and early October 2009. The H1N1 vaccine was initially given to those people at highest risk for complications (pediatric/children, pregnant women, caregivers). Researchers suggest the H1N1 vaccine was effective in reducing the effects of this flu virus, even though it was not as deadly as first estimated.

Vaccination against seasonal flu and the infrequent pandemic flu (1918 [no vaccine], 1957, 1968, and 2009) has been improved since it was first tried in the 1940s. Vaccination provides the best chance (about 70%-90%) to prevent the symptoms and complications (including pneumonia) of influenza infection from developing; the value of vaccinations is in the numbers of people who live and do not get sick from the disease because they were successfully vaccinated.

In the future, vaccines may be made differently; however, the vaccine hastily made in 2009 to protect people from H1N1 was deemed successful and can serve as an interim vaccine synthesis method until newer and faster vaccine synthesis methods are widely accepted.

Must Read Articles Related to Flu Vaccine

Fever in Adults A fever is a body temperature of 100.4 F or greater. A fever may be caused by a virus, bacteria, fungus, blood clot, tumor, drug, or the environment. Treatment ...learn more >>

Fever in Children Fever is defined as a rectal temperature over 100.4 F or 38.0 C. Fever isn't life-threatening unless it is persistently high -- greater than 107 F rectal temper...learn more >>

Flu in Adults Flu (influenza) is an acute infection of the nose and throat airways. This infection may spread to the lungs. Flu is the most frequent cause of acute respirator...learn more >>

See the Entire Flu Vaccine Topic Guide »