Protect Yourself This Flu Season
Flu season comes every year, but its timing and severity can be unpredictable. Getting a yearly flu vaccine is the best way to reduce your risk of flu and its potentially serious complications.
Flu vaccination can help prevent illness, reduce the severity of flu if you do get sick, and lower the risk of hospitalization and death. Protecting yourself can also help protect the people around you, including those who may be at greater risk for serious flu complications.
Everyone 6 months and older should receive a flu vaccine each year, with rare exceptions.
Flu vaccination can help prevent flu and reduce its impact if you do get sick. During the 2024–25 flu season, vaccination prevented an estimated 10 million illnesses, 5 million medical visits, 180,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths. Flu vaccination has also been shown to reduce the risk of having to visit a doctor for flu by 40% to 60%.
Everyone 6 months and older should receive a flu vaccine every year, with rare exceptions. Talk with your healthcare provider if you have questions about which flu vaccine is right for you.
September and October are generally good times for most people to be vaccinated. Ideally, vaccination should happen by the end of October, but getting vaccinated later can still provide protection while flu viruses are circulating.
Even when vaccination does not prevent every flu infection, it can make illness less severe. Among vaccinated adults hospitalized with flu, ICU admissions decreased by 59%. Children’s risk of admission to a pediatric intensive care unit for flu-related illness was reduced by almost 75%.
Flu vaccination can protect pregnant people and their babies. Vaccination has reduced flu-related emergency department and urgent-care visits among pregnant people and can help protect young infants during their first months of life.
Flu vaccines are available through West Central Health District health departments. Contact your local county health department for vaccine availability, eligibility, cost and appointment information.