The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the go ahead to six drug manufacturers to make flu vaccine for the coming year.In a press release the FDA said, “Vaccination remains the cornerstone of preventing influenza, a contagious respiratory disease caused by influenza viruses. The vaccine formulation protects against the three virus strains that surveillance indicates will be most common during the upcoming season and includes the same virus strains used for the 2010-2011 influenza season.”
On average about 200,000 people head to the doctors office due to flu related symptoms and end up hospitalized because of complications.
“Vaccines to prevent seasonal influenza have a long and successful track record of safety and effectiveness in the United States,” said Karen Midthun, M.D., director of FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “It is important to get vaccinated every year, even if the strains in the vaccine do not change, because the protection received the previous year will diminish over time and may be too low to provide protection into the next year.”
Each year health experts gather to investigate which strains of flu will likely develop and which vaccines will work best against them. This year experts say the strains of the flu have not altered much from the strains found last year which means little, if any, changes are needed to vaccines.
Another flu fighterA hot flu fighter on the market right now is Tamiflu. According to their website it can stop the flu from spreading inside the body and is clinically proven to help people get better faster than other treatments. The flu fighter is prescribed to adults and children 1 year and older with flu symptoms.
Studies show those taking Tamiflu within 40 hours of experiencing flu symptoms recovered 30% (1.3 days) faster than patients who took nothing at all.
