Time for Flu Shots | Video

Michelle San Miguel | 9/21/2012

Flu season is approaching and clinics across North Dakota are ready to start distributing the flu vaccine. Health providers recommend anyone six months of age and older should get vaccinated. Women who are pregnant, those 65 and older or who have a chronic illness like diabetes have a higher risk of developing complications like pneumonia if they get the flu.

It usually takes about two weeks after the vaccine is administered for antibodies to provide protection against the flu.

"Now it seems like the vaccine is lasting longer, you know. It`s going more than the four or five months that we used to say. You know it could be even six months, seven months, eight months from now that it`s still working just fine," said Naomi Friesz, a registered nurse at Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health.

Flu season can start as early as October and last through May.

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