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Is your flu shot really protecting you from getting sick?

Posted at 7:41 PM, Dec 18, 2014
and last updated 2014-12-18 19:41:26-05

There is a new strain of the flu virus spreading all across the country and health experts say your vaccine can't fight it.

"The vaccine is not as protective as we would have like," said Stephen Biggs, a physician's assistant at Patient First.

He says the CDC sent out an alert about the new variant virus of Influenza A H3N2 a few weeks, explaining this strain is a genetic mutation of the common flu.

Biggs says he's noticed more people have it. At the Patient First where he works in Chesapeake, Biggs says they have been seeing about 155 people a day; that's more than double on a normal day.

But Biggs says even though this new kind of flu isn't in the vaccine you received this year, it doesn't mean it isn't effective.

"No vaccine is 100%," Biggs said. "But it offers some protection. It's a difference between you being mildly inconvenienced or being in bed for two weeks."

NewsChannel 3 spoke to Lisa Engle, who works at the Chesapeake Health Department. We asked her how this happened.

"The flu doesn't stay the same. It changes every year." Engle said. "In February, the World Health Organization convenes a group of people together that decides what strains of the virus are going into the vaccine. What happened was in February they made the decision and then in March, the strain was here. It changed and it became a variant one month too late."

Health experts say an extra way to protect yourself is to get an antiviral from your doctor, like Tamiflu, the moment you start getting flu symptoms.

Click here for the Health Advisory sent out by the CDC about the H3N2 Variant Virus.

For more latest information on the flu season from the CDC, click here.