Purpose and benefits of annual flu vaccination

Purpose and benefits of annual flu vaccination

The majority of deaths in the industrialized world occur in adults age of 65 and over. A review at the NI AID division of the NIH in 2008 concluded that "Seasonal influenza causes more than 200,000 hospitalizations and 41,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, and is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S."The  "The high costs of hospitalizing young children for influenza creates a significant economic burden in the United States, underscoring the importance of preventive flu shots for children and the people with whom they have regular contact..." in the U.S. have been estimated at over $80 billion. The number of annual influenza-related hospitalizations is many times the number of deaths.

An epidemic emerges during each winter's Each year there are two flu seasons due to the occurrence of influenza at different times in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Tens of thousands of Americans die in a typical year, but there are notable variations from year to year. In 2010 the in the States changed the way it reports the 30-year estimates for deaths from influenza. Now they are reported as a range from a low of about 3,300 deaths to a high of 49,000 per year over the past 30 years.

In Canada, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, the group that advises the , currently recommends that everyone aged 2 to 64 years be encouraged to receive annual influenza vaccination, and that children between the age of six and 24 months, and their household contacts, should be considered a high priority for the flu vaccine.