Christine Jordan Sexton
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released its recommendations for the 2023-2024 influenza season, saying that for most people “vaccination should ideally be offered during September or October.”
While those may be the golden months for vaccination to prepare for the 2023-24 influenza season, those who miss that 60-day window should “continue to seek out vaccinations throughout the season as long as influenza viruses are circulating, and unexpired vaccines are available.”
“Decisions about timing necessitate balancing considerations regarding this unpredictability of the influenza season, possible waning of vaccine-induced immunity over the course of a season, and programmatic considerations,” the recommendations say.
The vaccines became available in July and August but “vaccination during these months is not recommended for most groups because of the possible waning of immunity over the course of the influenza season.”
However, the CDC does recommend July and August vaccinations for some people. Children aged eight and younger who require more than one dose of the vaccine should receive their first dose in July or August. Indeed, the CDC noted that all children can be vaccinated in July and August.
“(C)hildren in this group might visit health care providers during the late summer months for medical examinations before the start of school. Vaccination can be considered at this time because it represents a vaccination opportunity,” the recommendations note.
Pregnant women who are in their third trimester during July and August should also get vaccinated early. “Vaccination has been associated in multiple studies with reduced risk for influenza illness in their infants during the first months after birth, when they are too young to receive influenza vaccine.”
Otherwise, people under the age of 65 and persons in their first or second trimester of pregnancy should wait until September or October to get vaccinated.
Influenza viruses typically circulate annually in the United States from the late fall through the early spring. While most people recover from influenza, the virus can result in serious illness, hospitalization and death.
Optimally, vaccination should occur before the onset of influenza activity. But the timing of the onset, peak and decline of influenza activity changes, which makes finding the ideal time frame for vaccination a tricky task to master.
In Florida, the 2022–23 flu year began Oct. 2, 2022, and ended May 20, 2023, according to the Department of Health (DOH), although surveillance continues year-round.
The most recent DOH data show for the 2022-23 flu season there were 134.4 hospital admissions with flu diagnoses per 100,000 people among those aged 65 and older, and 34.2 hospital admissions with flu diagnoses per 100,000 people for those aged 18-65.
There were six deaths stemming from the flu per 100,000 population for those 65 and older. Death rates for the flu in younger people was significantly less, with 0.5 deaths for adults between the ages of 18 and 65. The death rate for those 17 and younger from the flu in 2023 was even lower, at 0.2 deaths per 100,000 people.
Since 2010, the CDC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have recommended routine annual influenza vaccination for all persons aged 6 months or older who do not have contraindication.
The guidelines were based on recommendations and a report prepared by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an advisory panel that provides expert external advice and guidance to the CDC Director on use of vaccines and related agents for the control of vaccine preventable diseases in the civilian population of the United States.
ACIP’s recommendations are forwarded to CDC’s Director and, when adopted, are published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
