Wednesday, health officials assembled in Washington D.C. endorsed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendation concerning flu vaccines. The CDC advises that all children between the ages of 6 months and 18 years should get a flu shot, thus expanding the target base by approximately 30 million children.

William Schaffner, president-elect of the National Foundation of Infectious Diseases, which fully supported CDC’s decision to expand recommendations, stated that the measure is aimed at reducing the amount of time children miss school due to influenza.

Moreover, the expansion targets improving both individual health and the overall well-being of the children population, since flu is highly transmissible in schools.

Schaffner added that people should start getting the flu shots as early as this month, although the number of influenza cases usually spikes between December and March. Health officials expect that 146 million doses of vaccine-a record number-will be made available to Americans for the following flu season.

Each year, 5 to 20% of the nation’s population come down with the flu, about 200,000 (of 15 to 16 million) people needing to be admitted to hospitals. Of these, approximately 35,000 die from influenza-related complications.

Between December 2007 and March 2008, 85 children were reported by the CDC to have died as a dreadful outcome of the aforementioned complications, most of which were teens aged 15 to 17.

Presently, the CDC urges 85% of the United States population (about 265.1 million Americans) to receive flu shots. Health officials have not made changes to their recommendations for people over 50, pregnant women, health care workers or people with chronic diseases, which are some of the other groups who should get the shots.