Public Health

Flu

This Season a Flu Vaccine is More Important than Ever!

Find where you can get a free flu vaccine.

Getting a flu vaccine is more important than ever to protect yourself, your family and your community from the flu. A flu vaccine this season can also help reduce the burden on our healthcare systems responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and save medical resources for care of COVID-19 patients.

The more people vaccinated; the more people protected. Do your part. Get a flu vaccine!

Who Needs a Flu Vaccine?

Who Needs a Flu Vaccine?We encourage everyone to contact their primary healthcare provider or local pharmacy or retailer to receive the seasonal flu vaccine. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages individuals to get vaccinated. This is especially true for pregnant women, children, young adults, caretakers of infants, and health care workers. Because seasonal flu viruses change every year, the vaccine is updated annually. So even if you or your children got a flu vaccine last year, you both still need to get a flu vaccine this season to remain protected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offers recommendations found here.

The Texas Vaccines for Children program provides no-cost vaccines to eligible children 18 years old and younger. Clinics participating in the Texas Vaccines for Children program may be located here.

Flu Near You

Early detection and early response are key to preventing the spread of any disease.

Makes sense, but how are disease outbreaks detected in real time?

Letting individuals report symptoms in real-time can complement traditional tracking while providing useful information directly to the public. While important systems exist for reporting and tracking disease, they’re not perfect, missing those who don’t go to the doctor, and a bit slow because it takes time for reports to be collected and sent to health departments.

Flu Near You relies on voluntary participation from the general public, asking you to take a few seconds each week to report if you or your family members have been healthy or sick.

Thousands of reports are analyzed and mapped to generate local and national views of influenza-like illness, providing public health officials and researchers with real-time, anonymous information that could help prevent the next pandemic.

With your help, we can all see what’s coming and - better still- you have the knowledge to protect yourself and your family against disease. Visit FluNearYou.org or download the mobile app for Android or iOS. #FluNearYou

El Paso County Flu Statistics

 

 Calendar Year  Cases Reported
 2022 5,378
 2021 1,526
 2020 13,247
 2019 14,535
 2018 13,093
 2017 5,756
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Flu View Interactive

Access the latest reports on influenza in the U.S., including Texas and El Paso, TX by visiting the CDC FluView. This series of dynamic visualizations allows any Internet user to access influenza information collected by the CDC’s monitoring systems.

Influenza surveillance data from 1997-1998 through the current season from the U.S. World Health Organization (WHO) and National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS) collaborating laboratories and U.S. Outpatient Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) can be accessed through the FluView Interactive website.

Learn about FLU ON CALL – a valuable system to address flu pandemics

FLU ON CALL Project Description

  • What is Flu on Call? The FAQs Sheet introduces the reader to Flu on Call and how it supplements state and community preparedness plans.
  • An easy-to-understand infographic that shows the flow of the Flu on Call system step-by-step.
  • Where are the pilot test sites? This map shows the location of each participating 2-1-1 and poison control center.
  • The Issue Brief, "Flu on Call: An Innovative Strategy to Provide Services to Ill People and Reduce Demand," provides comprehensive project background and to-date milestones.
  • Koonin LM. "Flu on Call: Improving Access to Care and Antivirals in a Severe Pandemic" PowerPoint slides from the 2014 Preparedness Summit all-day workshop.