This year's flu season has been severe, with cases spiking not once but twice. Despite the decline in COVID-19 infections, as indicated by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), flu activity continues to be unusually high. While viral interference—the fact that one virus can suppress another—can be cited as a reason why COVID-19 infections have declined, the flu has persisted.

Although the wave of COVID-19 this year has been somewhat subdued, the flu is the new hot stuff with a surprise comeback. But this raises a very important question: Is it possible to get the flu twice within a season despite receiving a vaccine? The answer is a simple yes. Why does this happen and how do you counter it?.

Yes, you can get the flu twice in one season—even after getting vaccinated. The flu virus is constantly evolving, and multiple strains circulate at any given time. While flu shots provide valuable protection, they are not foolproof. Practicing good hygiene, boosting your immune system, and taking preventive measures can help reduce your risk of back-to-back infections. If you do get sick, monitor your symptoms closely and seek medical attention if necessary.

Flu season is usually from October to May, and several different strains of the virus are floating around at one time. What this means is that even if you've already had the flu, you may not be protected against a second strain that arises later in the season.

Can You Get the Flu Twice During the Same Season?

Yes, and it's more prevalent than you would imagine. Four types of influenza viruses exist—A, B, C, and D—but influenza A and B are responsible for most cases of seasonal flu. Within each of these categories, several subtypes and strains are present, making reinfection more likely.

Your body acquires immunity to a strain after getting infected, but this immunity is not always transferred to other strains. For instance, if you get influenza A (H3N2) early in the season, you may still get infected by influenza B thereafter. Furthermore, the flu virus is constantly mutating, and this makes variants able to outsmart the immune system's defenses.

Can You Get the Same Flu Strain Twice?

The chances of reinflection with the same strain are slim but not out of the question. Your body creates a defense after the initial contact, lowering the risk of reinfection. The flu virus does make changes in its genes quite often, so even minor mutations can cause reinfection in certain situations.

What About the Flu Shot? Can You Still Get the Flu After Being Vaccinated?

Flu vaccines are formulated based on professional estimates of the most prevalent circulating strains for each season. But they are not always a perfect match.

For example, the 2018 flu vaccine was only 36% effective against the prevailing strain that year. The efficacy of flu vaccines depends on how well the strains chosen for the vaccine match those that are circulating. Also, the immune system takes two weeks to develop a response to the vaccine, so exposure during this time can still lead to infection.

With that said, vaccination greatly reduces the severity of the illness, preventing hospitalization and complications.

Why Can Back-to-Back Flu Infections Happen?

Back-to-back flu infections are possible for a variety of reasons:

Multiple circulating strains – Both Influenza A and B cause seasonal flu, and multiple strains of each can circulate at the same time.

Immune system limitations – A past infection's immunity may not provide complete protection against a new strain.

Vaccine mismatch – If the vaccine doesn't provide full protection over the strains in circulation, reinfection is likely.

Weakened immunity – People with weakened immune systems have a higher chance of contracting multiple infections.

Who is Most Likely to Get the Flu Twice?

Some groups are more at risk of getting multiple infections of the flu during the same season, including:

Unvaccinated people – Without a flu shot, there is no baseline immunity.

Individuals with compromised immune systems – Lupus, HIV, or diabetes may reduce immunity.

Infants and elderly adults – Individuals less than 2 years and above 65 years of age possess a weaker defense mechanism.

Expectant women – Immunity changes during pregnancy and thus makes an individual more vulnerable.

Individuals with exposure to dense populations – Office spaces, schools, and public transport boost risks of exposure.

When To Go For Medical Help?

While the majority of flu cases recover on their own with rest and fluids, severe symptoms need medical treatment. You should seek a healthcare provider if you have:

• Trouble breathing
• Chest pain
• Severe vomiting
• Oxygen levels less than 90% (readable through a pulse oximeter)
• Severe weakness or dizziness

How to Keep Yourself from Getting the Flu Twice

While reinfection is a possibility, there are precautions you can take to reduce your risk:

• Get a vaccine – Even after having the flu, the shot guards against other strains.
• Have good hygiene – Wash hands repeatedly, don't touch your face, and disinfect shared surfaces.
• Use a mask in a crowded place – This prevents the exposure to droplets in your respiratory system.
• Improve immune system – Take a healthy diet, sleep adequately, and keep yourself hydrated.
• Stay away from close contact with ill people – Minimize contact with flu-affected people wherever possible.

As flu season persists, being well-informed and proactive is your best protection against repeated bouts of illness.

You may have heard people say that they are allergic to things, whether it is gluten, soy or peanuts. These people avoid these items, even going as far as not dining in certain places where there is a possibility of cross contamination.

While it may seem like an overreaction, allergy symptoms can range from just a few rashes to cause of death. There are many people who did not and still do not take allergies seriously. As one of the most common allergies, many people who have close ones with peanut allergy, many places have opened “nut-free” zones including schools, offices and many public spaces.

While there is no cure for allergies, a new clinical trial results show that exposure therapy with peanut allergies has proven successful.

Why Do We Need Exposure Therapy?

The research team reported in the journal Allergy, April 2025, that a significant majority of the participants, more than two out of every three (67%), were able to eat at least five peanuts without triggering an allergic reaction after undergoing the treatment. This marks a positive step forward in managing this common and often severe allergy.

Seeing as expansive as the risk associated with allergies is, researchers have continued working towards proper cures and treatments. While there are precautions like avoiding the allergens, reducing exposure, when a person with a sever, allergy is exposed to the allergens, the chances of them going into anaphylaxis is a lot, so many people care EpiPens or epinephrine shot that can counter allergic reactions for a while.

How Does Exposure Therapy Work For Peanut Allergies?

The way exposure therapy works is pretty simple but needs to be done carefully. People who are allergic to peanuts are given very, very small amounts of peanut protein every day. Over time, the amount is slowly increased. It's like gently introducing the body to the thing it's allergic to, little by little. This helps the body learn that peanuts aren't actually a threat, and it starts to react less strongly. It's a gradual process, but the goal is to build up a person's ability to handle peanuts without having a dangerous allergic reaction.

In this study, 21 adults who were allergic to peanuts took part. Every day, they ate a small amount of peanut flour mixed in with their food. The goal was for them to be able to eat a small amount of peanut flour every day for at least a month without any problems. After that, they were tested to see how much peanut they could eat. The researchers were very happy with how well the treatment worked, saying that the results were similar to what they've seen in studies with kids.

The study showed some really impressive results in how much more peanut the participants could handle after the treatment. The researchers mentioned that on average, the amount of peanut they could eat without a reaction went up by a hundred times!

Why Are Researches Like This Important?

What makes this study really important is that it's the first-time scientists have specifically looked at how well exposure therapy works for adults with peanut allergies. Usually, this kind of treatment is done with kids because their bodies are still growing and changing. However, this new research shows that even adults, whose bodies are already fully grown, can still become less allergic to peanuts with this type of treatment. This opens up a whole new possibility for adults who have lived with this allergy for many years and haven't had many treatment options before. Many said that the treatment was "life-changing" and they no longer lived in constant fear of their allergy.

Every three seconds someone in the world develop dementia. Forgetting things every now and then is normal, it happens to everyone. However, nobody expects to lose their sense of being, all the memories and life experiences that make you who you are. Dementia is the condition that makes all of these fears come true. It is a collective name for different brain syndromes which affect one's memory, thinking, behavior as well as emotions.

Many symptoms of dementia are vague, especially early ones, and they can easily mislead people. However, a new technological advancement may help people get diagnosed early, through shoes.

How Can Shoes Help Us Diagnose Dementia?

This new technology, published in Science Advances in April 2025, works by using special insoles you put inside your shoes. These insoles have tiny sensors that can feel the pressure when you walk or stand. What's really clever is that these sensors don't just feel pressure; they turn that pressure into tiny electrical signals. These signals carry hidden information about how you move and how your body is working, kind of like secret messages from your feet that can tell a story about your health without you even realizing.

How Do These Shoes Work?

The electrical signals created by the smart insoles are then sent wirelessly to a special application on your smartphone, just like getting a text message. This app takes all that data and turns it into easy-to-understand pictures and information about how you walk and stand. It can show exactly where you put the most pressure on your feet and how your movement changes over time. Even more impressively, the app uses smart computer programs to learn and recognize different ways you move, like sitting, standing, or running, giving a detailed look at your daily activities.

For patients who might be developing health issues, the smart insoles could provide early clues that doctors can use to make diagnoses sooner. For athletes, this technology can help them understand their posture better, which can prevent injuries and improve their performance. If someone is recovering from an injury, the insoles can track their progress and make sure they are healing correctly.

Researchers have already discovered that the way people walk can change when they have certain health problems, especially conditions that affect the brain and nerves, like Parkinson's disease. People with Parkinson's might start to shuffle their feet or lean to one side when they walk. The team behind these smart insoles believes that by having much better sensors in shoes, doctors could get a more accurate and earlier warning sign of these kinds of conditions just by analyzing someone's walk. This could lead to earlier treatments and better management of these challenging illnesses.

Why Is Early Diagnosis Important?

According to Alzheimer’s Disease International there are 55 million people living with dementia in 2020.

Their research shows that most of the people who have dementia have not received proper treatment for the same. About three quatre of the people who have been diagnosed with dementia lack treatment or have access to healthcare. Even in high-income countries only about 20-50% of people receive the proper care they need.

This treatment gap can only be fixed when people start getting a diagnosis. Not just receiving care, but receiving early diagnosis and treatment is crucial for proper dementia care, as explained by World Alzheimer Report 2011.

Whooping cough or pertussis, has been making headlines for its comeback across the United States. As per the recent data, there have been 8,485 reported cases for far this year. This is double the number recorded at the same time last year. The resurgence had already led to the deaths of two infants in Louisiana and a 5-year old child in Washington state over the past six months.

Pertussis is a highly contagious respiratory disease caused by the Bordetella pertussis bacterium. It is most dangerous for infants and young children, particularly before they are old enough to receive their first dose of vaccine at two months of age.

Why Are Cases Increasing?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, whooping cough cases dropped due to the increase in the use of masks, social distancing, and other preventive measures. However, it has made a comeback after 2 to 5 years as these preventive measures have decreased.

There is another factor in the increase of cases, it is the decline in vaccine rotes. As per an AP report, kindergarten vaccination coverage dropped last year, and vaccines exemptions reached an all-time high in the United States.

Public health officials worry that growing vaccine hesitancy could further fuel outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough.

Pregnant women are also recommended to receive the Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis) vaccine to protect their newborns. Unfortunately, vaccination rates during pregnancy remain suboptimal, leaving many babies vulnerable in their first months of life.

Which States Reported The Highest Cases?

There are certain states that have reported more numbers than others. As of the recent data, Pennsylvania reported 207 cases so far, whereas Michigan has seen an even sharper rise in cases. In 2025, Michigan has reported 516 cases, mostly among children, between ages 5 to 17. Michigan, in the last year, reported 2,081 pertussis cases.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all infants, children, adolescents, and pregnant women get vaccinated against pertussis. Adults who missed vaccinations earlier in life should also receive a dose to ensure protection.

How Does It Affect Your Body?

According to the CDC, Bordetella pertussis bacteria attach to the cilia (small hair-like structures) lining parts of the upper respiratory tract. The bacteria release toxins that damage the cilia and cause swelling, leading to severe coughing fits.

Symptoms of whooping cough can vary depending on a person’s age and vaccination status. Initial symptoms often resemble a common cold: runny nose, mild cough, and low-grade fever. However, as the disease progresses, patients may experience uncontrollable, violent coughing fits that can make it hard to breathe. The characteristic "whoop" sound often occurs when the patient gasps for air after a coughing fit.

Who Is More At Risk?

Babies under 1 year old are most at risk for severe complications, including pneumonia, seizures, and even death. Individuals with underlying health conditions like asthma or those who are immunocompromised also face a higher risk of serious illness.

How It Spreads And How Can It Be Prevented?

Whooping cough spreads easily through respiratory droplets when an infected person coughs or sneezes. People can remain contagious for at least two weeks after symptoms begin. Some individuals may only have mild symptoms yet can still unknowingly transmit the bacteria to vulnerable groups like infants.

The best way to prevent whooping cough is vaccination. Practicing good hygiene, such as frequent handwashing and covering coughs and sneezes, can also help limit the spread. In some cases, preventive antibiotics (post-exposure prophylaxis) may be recommended for those who have been in close contact with an infected person.