Flu Questions and Answers
2004-2005 Flu Season

Updated October 13, 2004

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In addition to whether or not they are going to be able to get a flu shot, people have lots of questions about this year's flu season, including:

What happened to the idea of diluting flu shots or using partial doses? According to the CDC, while 'some studies have been done to assess the antibody response to one-half of the normal dose of inactivated influenza vaccine in healthy adults aged 18-49 years,' there was really no proof that it would work in high risk patients and it isn't approved by the FDA for use this way, so partial doses won't be used this year.
Is this going to be a bad flu season? It isn't possible to make a prediction like that before a flu season begins.
Will the flu shot work this year? Last year's flu vaccine wasn't a good match for the flu virus that ended up infecting most people. Fortunately, so far this year, the CDC reports that the strains of flu that have been detected in the United States so far are a good match for the strains in this year's flu vaccine. So you should have good protection if you got a flu vaccine.