Flu is one of the very common ailments which affects all of us at one point of time or the other. It is extremely infectious and causes serious viral respiratory infection and the symptoms of this condition are quite severe and prolonged and will force you to bed rest for a couple of days. In fact, the overall infection will certainly stress the whole body and in course of time, even super infections may occur which are bacterial infections on top of respiratory infections. For you to have a fighting chance against the flu, doctors truly recommend all of us to get our annual flu shots. Severe infections have the chance to cause morbidity and even death and thus it certainly becomes vital for us to prevent flu by vaccination. Medications to treat flu are available however, they are quite expensive and are not as effective as the vaccination.

However, most of the people are scared about the possible side effects of flu shot, but the truth of the matter is that the side effects from flu shots are quite minimal and are not of a major concern. In fact, if you do not have any specific conditions or allergic reactions, then anyone over six months can receive the flu shots. The occurrence of flu is predominant during the winter season and as the vaccination will take two weeks to take effect, it is highly recommended that you get your flu shots early in the season. Many of the people wrongly assume that the side effects of the flu shot is to develop a bout of the flu which is just a myth. However, the purpose of the shot is to make sure that you do not develop flu at any cost. The common side effects from the flu vaccine injection in adults generally includes mild soreness, redness, and swelling at the spot of injection, fever, aches, runny nose, nasal congestion or cough, sore throat, chills, weakness or tiredness and very rare side effects may also include life-threatening allergic reaction. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) strongly recommends that people over the age of 50, residents of nursing homes or chronic care facilities, adults and children with heart and lung problems and with chronic metabolic diseases and pregnant women should necessarily get immunized with flu shots.