"Flu as all of you knows it is a seasonal disease. In India again the peak is rainy season. In most of the times we see the peak of cases coming between the month of June to October to November. In certain art of India something like the northern part of India, close to equator, they get constant cases of flu throughout the year. Because they are close to the equator, they do get something called as a southern pole disease pattern also. So we do see a peak season, somewhere between June to October to November but throughout the year, we do keep seeing flu season, but again the concentration will be more around the rainfall, around June to October. That is when we see more cases of flu. That is an annual disease, all over the year, we keep seeing flu . Flu is an airborne disease. It keeps spreading from person to person. Like during peak seasons, how to prevent yourself or kid from flu is to keep away from crowded places. Practically it may not be possible but something like a cinema theaters or all or crowded places, especially during season of flu, many of them will be getting a bit of cough and cold. So when the child comes in contact especially during peak seasons, especially when the child acquires infect form one of these people will be there. So avoid crowded places and vaccinate your child will be a way of preventing flu infection"

"The seasonal change is as good from place to place. initially though we say we fall in Northern hemisphere we get the same flu variant of the flu vaccine for that matter. In India towards northern India, we see we get an annual flu. Thought the year there will be n ongoing flu season. To a certain extent w e se the parts that area close to the equator like arts that are close to the equator we see a paten o a southern hemisphere pattern of a flu virus . So it is very important whenever you are travelling form place to place it is very important to protect you against the flu vaccine. Generally the parents keep asking w e are going for a holiday and we are planning to travel out of the control and I have a rough idea we are travelling to. Generally for a flu vaccination we divide to a Northern hemisphere and a southern hemisphere of the globe , we can say. If I am travelling from India to other countries like Russia or China, if I have taken a vaccine in India I do not have to necessarily worry about getting revaccinated. So if you have vaccinated a child before 2 to 3 weeks before a planned travel, but if you are travelling to a different country that has a different pattern of a flu virus prevalent, it is always better to have a knowledge about it and it is always better to have a knowledge about it and always get a flu vaccination done. Laws travelling from place to lace has a lot of health issues, especially health related , weather related, climate related, more so it affects adult compared to a smaller kid so whenever kids are travelling from place to place, during holiday seasons, we always ask them to getting them vaccinated for the flu vaccine if they have not taken the flu vaccine in the current season. So it is better to get a flu vaccination if you have to have a planned travel"

"We see most of the school going kids getting flu every now and then they get cough, cold fever. You don’t have to get worried. If the fever is of really high grade and child is getting very dull and not able to breathe comfortably, not at all taking oral intake, too much vomiting or generally child is becoming very sick, very lethargic, sleeping for long hours, urine output is very less, fast breathing. These symptoms we call as warning symptoms. At this point you should be cautious"

"Flu vaccine is very safe in kids. After vaccination we see reactions. It varies from mild pain, fever, sometimes swelling, to a severe variety. Sometimes they throw fits or they become unconscious. With Flu vaccine these side effects are not seen"

"Flu Vaccine is a live viral vaccine like most of the vaccines. We use a live virus or a killed component of the bacteria and what it does is it gets into our body and stimulates our body’s immune function. The Flu Vaccine stimulates your body to have antibody response to that, that is the fighting capacity against the virus so that the actual virus your body will have immunity against that"

"Yes, the flu is a seasonal thing. There are the strains of influenza, influenza A and B. A is the one which keeps mutating every now and then and it keeps on mutating very frequently compared to influenza B which doesn’t keep changing compared to influenza B. Most often what we see in these pandemics or what we call as the sudden outbreaks, what we keep hearing in the news. Majority of the times it is due to influenza A. But having said that 30 to 50% cases are documented because of influenza B also. So when we vaccinate a child for a particular thing it will be relevant for that particular season like 2 years back when we had H1N1 everywhere. So the vaccine should be targeted against that particular lineage or strain of virus. So when we vaccinate it will be relevant to hat particular season. It will be very beneficial against that particular viral strains. It affects mostly during the monsoon period. So the next year, during the premonsoon if there is different strain of virus. The virus is mutated, then previous vaccine we have used will not be very effective for that particular thing unless it is the same virus that is still prevailing in t he environment. If the virus has mutated. So the flu vaccine wheat we give has a good coverage or that particular season , but it is always recommended to keep giving the flu vaccine yearly so that the particular viral strain that which is there in the environment and the vaccination that we are targeting against both are same. So we recommend giving flu vaccine annually"