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Flu shots at no cost to the recipients will be available 1-4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Mary Parish Health Unit, 1200 David Drive in Morgan City. Walk-ups are welcome. If you have private insurance, Medicaid or Medicare, you should bring your card.

The Daily Review/Bill Decker

(UPDATED) La. offering no-cost flu shots at parish health clinics

St. Mary unit in Morgan City is participating

The most dangerous influenza season in a decade continues to send people to clinics and hospitals. Louisiana’s public health units, including the St. Mary unit at 1200 David Drive in Morgan City, are helping people fight back.

The health units will offer no-cost flu shots 1-4:30 p.m. Wednesday.

People who come to the health units for flu vaccinations needn’t make appointments. Walk-ups are welcome.

If you have private insur-ance, Medicare or Medicaid, you should bring your card.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend flu vaccinations for everyone 6 months or older.

The current generation of flu vaccine has been adjusted for the mix that lab tests are identifying in samples from patients. Health officials say this year’s shot correctly targets the strains that are making Americans sick, including one causing most of the illness, a Type A H3N2 flu virus. But exactly how well it is working won’t be known until next month.

The same virus was the dominant flu bug last winter, when the flu season wasn’t so bad. It’s not clear why this season — led by the same bug — is so much more intense, some experts said.

In Louisiana, more than 80 percent of lab-identified influenza cases since October have been the A H3N2 strain, according to the CDC.

This year’s flu has hit the very young and the very old hardest. Thirty-seven flu-related pediatric deaths have recorded this season by the CDC.

Thirty-nine states reported high flu traffic last week, up from 32 the week before.

Some good news, at least so far: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that hospital stays and deaths from the flu among the elderly so far haven’t been as high as in some other recent flu seasons.

However, hospitalization rates for people 50 to 64 — Baby Boomers, mostly — has been unusually high, CDC officials said.

The CDC reported what was seen across the nation for the week ending Jan. 20.

Flu is a contagious respiratory illness, spread by a virus. It can cause a miserable but relatively mild illness in many people, but more a more severe illness in others. Young children and the elderly are at greatest risk from flu and its complications. In a bad season, there are as many as 56,000 deaths connected to the flu.

ST. MARY NOW

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