Last influenza season there were 134 influenza-associated deaths in Iowa.

Washington County Public Health Department Nurse Lynn Fisher says soon they’ll have vaccines available to protect people from the illness, “Our flu vaccine is going to start arriving a little bit early. Usually it arrives in September. I think we will be starting to get a little, tiny bit of our shipment next week.” Washington County Public Health will be carrying the four-strain flu vaccine available. Fisher says once they begin receiving the vaccine they’ll start immunizing, “CDC recommends that whoever has the vaccine should start giving it, administering it once they have that vaccine and not wait and hold until a certain month, like October 1st.”

She adds it takes about two weeks to build up the immunity once you get a flu shot. The peak time the last flu season with the highest number of positive tests was this February.