The CDC is out with its wrap-up of the 2010-11 flu season and a look ahead at the next one. In its report, the agency says the FDA has recommended that the 2011-12 flu vaccine protect against the same strains as it did this year : H1N1 (aka the swine flu, a type of influenza A virus), another type of influenza A virus (H3N2) and a type of influenza B virus. Having no change in the vaccine components from one year to the next happens occasionally, Lyn Finelli, the CDC’s chief of influenza surveillance, tells the Health Blog. So can you skip the shot if you were vaccinated during the flu season that just passed? Sadly for the needle-phobic, no. “You definitely need to get it. The immunity conferred by the flu shot isn’t very long-lasting,” Finelli says. Since last

year the CDC has recommended that everyone six months and older be vaccinated. The CDC says that the 2010-11 season peaked nationally in early February, and featured higher rates of hospitalization for older people and lower rates for younger people than in 2009-10, during the H1N1 pandemic. (That makes sense, because kids were more likely than older folks to get H1N1 . The most recent flu season was less severe overall than the 2009-10 pandemic and the 2007-08 season but more severe than the 2008-09 season, the CDC says. Severity is gauged by the percentage of deaths from pneumonia or flu, the number of flu-associated pediatric deaths reported and the percentage of visits to outpatient clinics for flu-like illnesses. Image: iStockphoto

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New Flu Vaccine Will Look a Whole Lot Like the Old One