Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

CDC: Current Flu Shot Less Effective Due to Virus Mutation

Your flu shot may not be as effective as it should be this flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An advisory issued to doctors Wednesday noted that less than half of the flu samples tested by the CDC from Oct. 1 through Nov. 22 were a good match for the current strain of the influenza, a component in the flu shots developed for the current flu season, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

That could result in people getting sick with the flu even though they have already been given the flu shot.

The staff at Doctors Express Urgent Care in Southlake is already seeing sick people who shouldn't be.

"We're getting a lot of false-negative results. I'm not gonna say that they don't have the flu. But they definitely have the symptoms," said nurse Tiffanie Hurst. "Which means if they did get the flu shot there's a possibility in there that it wasn't 100-percent effective."

The chief concern of Dr. Seema Yasmin, medical expert for The Dallas Morning News, is that people will opt to not get a flu shot now.

"That would be a disaster," Yasmin said.

"You should definitely get the flu shot," Hurst added. "It will definitely still work for your immune system and build it up to par in case you do come into contact with [the flu]."

The CDC is stressing that doctors should be prepared to use antiviral medications when needed.

These include Roche's Tamiflu and GlaxoSmithKline's Relenza, Reuters noted.

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