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A Spanish clinical trial of 400 people鈥攖wo-thirds of whom were women鈥攈as indicated that waiting to fill an antibiotic prescription may be a good idea for people with sniffles, coughs, sore throats, and other respiratory symptoms.

Researchers recruited volunteers who sought care for respiratory symptoms in primary care clinics throughout Spain. The volunteers were randomly assigned to four equal groups. One was given antibiotics and told to take them immediately. Another was sent home without antibiotics but told to return to the clinic if they hadn't improved after several days. The two remaining groups were told to wait to take antibiotics鈥攐ne was asked to return to the clinic to get their mediation after three days; the other group was given an antibiotic, but told to take the medication only if their symptoms hadn't improved after five to 10 days.

Flu season still has a few months left, and it is not too late to get a flu shot if you have not done so already.聽
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They may help reduce symptoms of the flu, but they're not for everyone.

If you start taking an antiviral medication after catching the flu, will it keep your family members from catching the bug, too? Maybe not, according to a study in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

The prescription antivirals oseltamivir (Tamiflu) and zanamivir (Relenza) can cut a case of the flu short by suppressing the virus's overpowering urge to copy itself inside you. Less viral "shedding" by the body could, hypothetically, make it less likely that people who live in the same house will also get sick.

“Last time I got the flu shot, it actually made me sick!” “My kids are perfectly healthy. They’ll be fine.” You’ve probably heard a version of these two before. These flu shot myths are so persistent that they prevent countless numbers of people from getting vaccinated each year. We’ve debunked these claims here to help you make your flu shot decision based on facts 鈥� not myths.

Ask the doctor

Q. I heard there is a high-dose flu vaccine that could work better in older people. Is it safe even if a man has a medical problem like cancer or heart disease?

A. The high-dose flu vaccine is very similar to the standard flu vaccine but appears to provide slightly better protection against influenza. Both vaccines target three different strains of the flu virus, selected from the most common strains predicted to be circulating that year. The viruses are inactivated, or killed, so they cannot cause the flu, even in people with weakened immune systems. Finally, both vaccines can cause mild symptoms of arm pain, redness, muscle aches, or low-grade fever. Although most people have minimal to no symptoms, the high-dose vaccine may slightly increase the side effects.

Vaccines are the best protection people have when it comes to certain illnesses. Older adults should get a flu shot every year.

If you got the flu shot last year and it didn't work, don't reject vaccination.

During last year's battle of The People vs. Influenza, the virus gained the upper hand. Early in the 2014鈥�15 flu season, a new strain of the virus emerged against which the existing vaccine offered virtually no protection. Hospitalizations for flu in older adults spiked to the highest level in a decade.

Some years the flu vaccine works quite well. Other years it doesn’t. It has done a particularly poor job this year against the main flu virus. The CDC reported yesterday that this year’s flu vaccine has been just 18% effective. The estimate for children is even lower. And it looks like the nasal spray vaccine may not have worked at all among children. One reason for this year’s mismatch between virus and vaccine is that experts must decide months in advance which of the hundreds of flu viruses to include in the vaccine. What became the dominant flu virus this year, a new strain of H3N2 influenza A, wasn’t around last year when experts were determining this year’s vaccine.