United States: New data also suggests that the flu vaccine was 34.5 percent effective in preventing people in the Southern Hemisphere who did get influenza from needing hospital care this year.
Of those sent to hospital, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said most (68.3 percent) had the A(H3N2) strain of flu.
More about the news
Given the risk reduction with the current shot, the accuracy of the vaccine potency against H3N2, which typically runs from 24 percent to 43 percent, is within historical averages, the report authors said.
People with chronic illnesses, usually at greater risk for severe flu, saw even greater hospitalization risk reductions, US News reported.
Those who parted ways with this group had a little less than a 59 percent lower risk of landing in the hospital if they got the flu shot compared to those who didn’t get immunized, the researchers said.
The study puclished its findings in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on October 3.
What more are the experts stating?
According to Erica Zeno, a team lead from the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, all of this “support[s] CDC and WHO’s recommendation that all eligible persons aged [at or above the age of] six months should receive influenza vaccination,” US News reported.
But, as is often the case with the Northern Hemisphere, uptake of the seasonal flu shot was slow in the Southern Hemisphere, at 21.3 percent, the report concluded.
Typically, the Southern Hemisphere winter flu season is from April through September.
Flu requires hospitalization sometimes
Sometimes, the flu is so severe that it needs hospitalization, which can kill.
As per the expert’s reports, flu takes the lives of as many as 71,700 people a year across the Americas.
The risk rises with age: They found that over 59 percent of those hospitalized were older adults. The new data shows, however, that the flu shot nearly cut the odds of older people being hospitalized from flu by a third (31.2 percent).
According to Zeno’s team, “Vaccination remains one of the most effective measures to prevent influenza-associated complications, including death,” US News reported.