Flu Season

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Anchor lead: The flu season has arrived in the northern hemisphere, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Have you gotten your flu shot yet? Clare Rock, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins, says it’s past time to do so.

Rock: Flu season is starting and we’re starting to see our first few cases of flu and likely going to ramp up very quickly over the coming weeks. The most important message is to go get vaccinated.  :10

Rock says while there are a few medicines to treat the flu, it’s still better to get the vaccine, since it protects against the disease until the season is over in late spring.

Rock: We do have some medicines that are antivirus-type medicines that can help fight against the flu. But ideally they need to be taken within the first couple of days of symptoms, so really prevention is always better than cure, so focusing more on getting the flu vaccine now, as opposed to waiting for symptoms to treat is really the best strategy.  :21

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.