The flu causes more deaths than AIDS each year according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control. About 36-thousand Americans died last year from influenza or from a disease that followed the flu, like pneumonia. State Epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk says the new information isn’t surprising, but underscores the need for the elderly to get a flu shot. Quinlisk says the flu shot protects the elderly, even those with weak immune systems, from the serious consequences of the disease. She says viral infections can lead to other diseases such as pneumonia.About 65 percent of the country’s elderly got flu shots this year, and Quinlisk says Iowa’s vaccination rate is slightly above that.
