The flu shot is most effective if you receive it by the end of October. With 80,000 deaths from flu during last year’s flu season, a doctor explains why you should act now.
One-year-old Kilian Doherty being prepared for a chest X-ray Feb. 9, 2018 to determine if he had flu.
David Goldman/AP Photo
Regular hand washing is important not only to keep from getting the flu but also to prevent passing it to others, such as young children and seniors, who may be even more vulnerable. Here’s how.
An Atlanta hospital set up a mobile ER to deal with the large number of flu cases.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Part of the problem was a mismatch between the influenza strains circulating and the vaccine available. Here’s how annual flu shots are formulated.
A poster from a world summit in Hong Kong on preparing for worldwide pandemics in June 2010. Despite efforts to develop plans, none is yet in place.
Vincent Yu/AP Photo
Vaccination against the flu is the best way to stop its spread, but a recent study suggests increasing air circulation and cleaning surfaces to remove the virus from the environment.
People and animals live side by side – and can have pathogens in common.
Nichola Hill
No one then knew a virus caused the 1918 flu pandemic, much less that animals can be a reservoir for human illnesses. Now virus ecology research and surveillance are key for public health efforts.
An injectable flu vaccination. Flu vaccines lessen the likelihood of getting the flu and its severity.
Flickr/
The 1918 flu pandemic has long puzzled those who study disease outbreaks. Why was it so severe? While that question is hard to answer, one thing is certain: Vaccines would have lessened the toll.
It can be difficult to find records from epidemics long past.
U.S. National Library of Medicine
With many men ‘missing’ from the population in the aftermath of the 1918 flu, women stepped into public roles that hadn’t previously been open to them.
Could the yearly flu shot become a thing of the past?
AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File
Flu virus mutates so quickly that one year’s vaccine won’t work on the next year’s common strains. But rational design – a new way to create vaccines – might pave the way for more lasting solutions.
A flu patient at ProMedica Toledo Hospital in Toledo, Ohio on Jan. 8, 2018.
AP Photo/Tony Dejak
Anyone who’s had the flu can attest that it makes them feel horrible. But why? What is going on inside the body that brings such pain and malaise? An immunologist explains.
A CDC scientist measures the amount of H7N9 avian flu virus grown in a lab.
James Gathany/CDC/Handout via REUTERS
Science has come a long way in the 100 years since the worst flu pandemic in history. But that doesn’t mean that the country is ready for another health disaster.
Influenza victims crowd into an emergency hospital near Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918.
AP Photo/National Museum of Health
Associate Dean For Global One Health, College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences; and Director, Pandemic and Biosecurity Policy Program, Scowcroft Institute for International Affairs, Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University
Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Emory University and Adjunct Professor Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of Pittsburgh