If you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it.” CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports children and the elderly tend to have the most complications from the flu: they get more easily dehydrated and often take on secondary infections

For those it hasn’t yet sickened, the threat has prompted some lifestyle changes.

Three-year-old Alyvia Gonzales showed up at day care Wednesday with a big can of spray disinfectant.

Her mother, Richelle Gonzales, said the Auraria Child Care Center asks parents for disinfectant, tissues and other supplies from time to time, and it appears to be working. So far, only one of the center’s 295 children has become seriously ill with flu.

“I think it’s one of those things,” Gonzales said. “You keep your kids healthy. If you’re going to get it, you’re going to get it.”

CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin reports children and the elderly tend to have the most complications from the flu: they get more easily dehydrated and 카지노사이트 often take on secondary infections. Children also have lower immunity.

Colorado reported 6,306 cases Wednesday, an increase of 1,619 from Monday. Although it’s early in the season, Colorado has already had more cases than in the previous two flu seasons combined, 6,239. Usually, the flu peaks in January.

Ten states are currently dealing with a widespread flu outbreak, most of them in the West, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

In Colorado, a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old from suburban Thornton died of the flu this week, following the deaths last month of children ages 15, 8 and 21 months. State officials were trying to determine if the death of another 2-year-old was caused by flu, and officials in Colorado Springs on Wednesday confirmed the death of a sixth-grader in Colorado Springs School District 11, possibly from the flu.

Reports about the flu have prompted a run on health clinics for vaccinations. Health department workers in El Paso County alone booked most of its 1,200 available inoculations by late Wednesday and were making appointments for 1,300 more they expected to have available.

Carole Healer got a flu shot for herself and her 2-year-old daughter Halle, mostly to protect her 4-month-old daughter Gwen. Another precaution, she said, is “a lot of hand washing.”

Dr. Louis Cooper of the American Academy of Pediatrics told the CBS News Early Show that parents should not live in fear.

“Children get influenza every year. Maybe 30 percent of the kids in school will get the flu,” Cooper said. “We always have some hospitalizations and we certainly have extra deaths.”

“What the deaths in Colorado mean is too early really to say,” he said, adding that the flu can be mild or severe and that parents should not assume that heir child has the flu just because they get sick.

The flu shot is usually recommended for adults over 50, children between 6 months and 2 years, people with chronic medical conditions and people who work in health care. Doctors are putting special emphasis on kids aged 6 months to 23 months, because their hospitalization rates appear to be as high as older people, Cooper said.

The strain of flu showing up this year is part of a deadly group called H3N2, a type of flu that leads to more deaths and hospitalizations than other flu strains. Federal health officials warned last month that this year’s flu vaccine does not exactly match the strain doctors are seeing so far.

The shot may still afford some protection. But CBS News Correspondent Dan Raviv says some people who were vaccinated have contracted the flu.

While shots are still available, Cooper advised parents and others who want the shots to see a doctor quickly. Vaccination usually takes place earlier in the fall.

The flu is a respiratory disease caused by the influenza virus. Symptoms include headaches, body aches, nasal congestion, fever, fatigue, cough and sore throat. The flu can lead to complications like pneumonia and bronchitis, especially for sick patients — like those with asthma.

In an average year, the disease infects up to 20 percent of the U.S. population, killing about 36,000 Americans and hospitalizing 114,000. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the country, deadlier than suicide or homicide.

The 1918 flu pandemic killed 500,000 Americans between September 1918 and April 1919. It claimed 20 million people worldwide, infecting between 20 percent and 40 percent of the world’s population. AIDS’ two-decade toll only recently surpassed that single year’s flu outbreak as the deadliest epidemic in recorded history.