Have you had the flu shot yet?

It's that time of the year again. No, I'm not talking about apples and pumpkin pies, ghosts and ghouls, deer hunting and footballs. I'm talking about the flu shot.

This year's flu vaccine will protect against three different flu viruses: an H3N2 virus, an influenza B virus and the H1N1 virus (swine flu virus) that caused so much illness last season. The CDC now recommends the vaccine for everyone aged 6 months and older.

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I always get the flu shot every year - not so much for myself but for other people around me. I'm a healthy adult and it's more than likely that, if I come down with the flu, I will fully recover from it. However, I am around the frail and elderly population who suffers chronic illnesses, and I recognize that I can pass the flu, and to them, the flu can be fatal. I have seen flu kill healthy older adults before.

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I have a 60 year old patient who has diabetes, kidney disease, heart disease and a history of heart bypass surgery, who refused to get the flu shot. He swears that he got the flu from the flu shot. That was more than 20 years ago, and he hasn't had the flu shot since. I always tell my patients to weight the risk and benefits of vaccines. In his case, given his age and his health status, the benefits of surviving and not dying from flu far outweighs the risk of side effects from the flu shot.

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I give the flu shot to my kids, too. I do because they are miserable even with a simple cold, and I can only imagine the hell I'm going to live through if they ever get ill with the flu.

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Other simple ways to prevent the spread of flu: covering the nose and mouth with a tissue when sneezing and coughing, frequent good hand washing, and staying home when sick. There are antiviral drugs available that can treat the flu, make the illness milder, shorten the duration or amount of time of the flu, and prevent serious flu complications. Antiviral drugs should be taken early, in the first two days of the onset of symptoms.

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For more information, log on to www.cdc.gov/flu/.