The annual flu shot is recommended for most people, but certain people are at particularly high risk of contracting the nasty bug and its complications. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says these people should be vaccinated every year.

Suggestions to help you feel better You shouldn't treat a cold -- always caused by a virus -- with antibiotics, since these medicines are meant to treat bacterial infections. But there are things you can do to feel better while the cold runs its course.

Those with asthma, other conditions have vaccination rates far below goals, study finds. Too few American adolescents with asthma and other high-risk illnesses are getting flu shots, a new study finds.

Predictive model shows shots would also save $7 billion in related health-care costs. Vaccinating infants with what's known as the "7 valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine" (PCV7) could save more than 357,000 lives

Heightened immune activity seen in people 65 and older, study says. A high dose of seasonal flu vaccine gives an added boost to the immune system of people aged 65 and older and provides them with better protection, according to a U.S. study that included nearly 4,000 people.

While not possible to protect all, studies show shots cut deaths, hospital visits. The more people who get the flu vaccine, the better it is for everyone, according to two new studies.

Vaccinating those in closest contact with newborns provides 'cocooning effect.' New mothers and their immediate family should receive flu shots before their newborns leave the hospital. This will create a "cocooning effect" that will help protect the infants from life-threatening influenza, a new study says.

Finding could one day lead to a cure, study suggests. Canadian and U.S. researchers have found that the human rhinovirus, long blamed for causing the common cold, doesn't actually cause those annoying sniffles, sneezes, and coughs.

CDC now recommends shots for those aged 6 months to 19. Richard Kanowitz's 4-year-old daughter, Amanda, died of the flu on March 1, 2004, barely 72 hours after she first complained of feeling ill.

Advance shots protect those most exposed in possible pandemic, researchers suggest. People can be protected against a potential avian flu epidemic by getting advance shots of a vaccine that may or may not be effective against the strain causing the epidemic, British researchers suggest.

Study finds it didn't keep them from hospitals, doctors' offices. Over the past two flu seasons, vaccinating children five and younger did not reduce the number of child hospitalizations or doctor's visits linked to influenza, according to results of a new study.

More data needed on whether OTC remedies are safe, agency official tells public meeting. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will take its time considering whether to ban over-the-counter cold medicines for children, a top agency official said Thursday at a public hearing on the matter.

Targeting increases in fatty acid metabolism inhibits replication, researchers find. Drugs used to treat obesity may be effective against a wide range of viral infections such as the flu, hepatitis, and even HIV, say researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center and Princeton University.

Voice and swallowing problems aren't a normal part of aging, but many seniors with these conditions don't receive treatment, even though they may suffer serious quality-of-life issues such as anxiety, depression and social withdrawal, say Duke University Medical Center researchers.

And officials are urging more Americans than ever before to get a shot this season. With flu season fast approaching, U.S. health officials predicted Wednesday that this year's vaccine will be a better match for the circulating influenza strains than last year's vaccine proved to be.

But group's survey finds fewer Americans taking this simple precaution. Fewer Americans are regularly washing their hands, even though it's one of the best ways to prevent colds and flu, says the fourth annual Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) Clean Hands Report Card.

Study says the finding could help many children with the breathing condition. Croup is typically recognized by a loud cough that often sounds like the barking of a seal. The condition can cause fast or difficult breathing, and sometimes wheezing. Croup has been thought to be caused by a virus, but upper airway problems have also been suggested as a possible trigger.

CDC's new 'do not board' list comes as a surprise to infectious disease experts. Thirty-three would-be air travelers with suspected or confirmed infectious tuberculosis were placed on the U.S. government's public health "Do Not Board" list in the first year of its existence, a federal report released Thursday showed.

U.S. health officials will mull new findings at vaccine meeting. A flu shot provided to a woman during her pregnancy can help shield her newborn against the potentially deadly infection, researchers report.

Canadian study found benefit to be statistically insignificant. Canadian researchers are challenging the widely held belief that flu shots help protect older people from potentially deadly diseases such as pneumonia.

Finding could lead to new strategies for fighting future pandemics, researchers say. People who lived through the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million worldwide are still producing antibodies to the virus 90 years later, researchers report.

The hope is they will be a better match than last year's shots. With the memory of last season's flu vaccine mismatch still fresh, U.S. health officials announced Tuesday that they have approved vaccines for the 2008-09 season that include new strains of the virus most likely to circulate.

A significant percentage of small children going to emergency rooms with an "apparent life-threatening event" had ingested over-the-counter cold and cough medicines, researchers report, despite recent U.S. recommendations that these products not be used in children under 2.

Immunotherapy shows promise in treating children with high-risk sarcomas, according to a U.S. National Institute of Health pilot study. The study involved a new dendritic vaccine as well as a standard flu vaccine to potentially strengthen the immune system following chemotherapy.

Flu vaccine may not protect older people from pneumonia once they get the disease, researchers report. Older, frail adults are more susceptible to getting the flu, even if they have been vaccinated, and once getting the flu, they are more susceptible to such complications as pneumonia.

Cigarette compounds mimicking viral components caused more severe airway damage in mice. In experiments with mice, U.S. researchers have discovered why viral infections have more severe consequences in smokers than in nonsmokers. For example, smokers with influenza are more likely to die than nonsmokers with influenza.

Only a quarter have emergency plan, less than half have educated staff, study finds. If an influenza pandemic swept through the United States, nursing homes might not be prepared to deal with patient overflow from hospitals, say researchers who looked at more than 400 nursing homes in Michigan and Nebraska to come to this conclusion.

Pneumonia second only to childbirth as most common reason for hospitalizations, analysis finds. In 2006, more than 1.2 million Americans -- roughly equivalent to the population of Dallas -- were hospitalized for pneumonia, a federal government analysis of hospital admissions and costs found.