Flu season usually peaks in winter; however, the best time to prevent infection is before the virus appears in a community.
"The best time to protect yourself against influenza is before we see it start circulating in large amounts," says Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, a pediatric infectious diseases physician with the Mayo Clinic Children's Center. "We are starting to detect cases in different parts of the country."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports influenza A as the dominant strain of flu virus in the U.S., though the strain may change over the flu season. Flu activity has been reported as low, but is beginning to increase.
