The protection you get from a flu shot wanes over time, leading to rumours that we should all be asking for a second flu shot in the spring. Not so fast! The current recommendation - to get a single flu shot, ideally during Autumn - is still your best bet.

First, take a deep breath. Do not panic. Chances are, almost everybody who is reading this article does not have measles. But you may want to know what to do if that statistical outlier is you (or your child).

The CDC recommends a flu shot for everybody from six-month-old babies on up. The recommendations and available vaccines change slightly each year, so we’ve got your cheat sheet for the 2019 flu season.

We’re on track for a record-breaking measles season.

Parents who don’t want to vaccinate their kids may seem so distant from the rest of us that it’s hard to understand how they formed their views. But they all probably had friends and family who were around at the time, but didn’t know what to say.

With measles, mumps, and other previously eradicated diseases making a comeback, it’s more important than ever to make sure your vaccinations are up to date — especially if you’re an adult.

Herd immunity protects the most vulnerable among us; a lapsed pertussis vaccine may not pose much of a threat to you, but it could seriously harm an immunocompromised kid or elder.

Rusty nails are famously associated with tetanus, but the disease is actually caused by bacteria, and doesn’t have anything specifically to do with rust. Here’s your primer on what tetanus is, and how to avoid it (spoiler: there’s a vaccine).

Flu season is upon us, and perhaps you are dismayed to hear that last year some people had gotten the flu vaccine and still came down with the flu. (This happens every year, but it seems more real when it happens to you or somebody you know.) But the flu vaccine is still working. Here's what you need to know.

When it comes to misinformation, what a person believes is less about what they’ve read and more about whom they trust. If that someone in your life is preparing to become a parent, you can help stop them from falling down the anti-vaxxer rabbit hole.

You, dear Lifehacker readers, are smart enough to know that measles is bad and that the measles vaccine is good. But there’s a lot of misinformation floating around, especially as the disease flares in Washington, Texas and New York.

Most of the students at one North Carolina private school in the US didn’t get the chickenpox vaccine. Now that school is the epicentre of the largest chickenpox outbreak in 20 years.

By breaking the chain of a disease's transmission, herd immunity protects the most vulnerable among us, including newborns and sick people who can't receive vaccines. But in order for it to work, a certain percentage of people in a community must be vaccinated.

In the era of 'fake news' and 'anti-vaxxers', being able to detect the difference between Good Science and Bad Science is critical to see through the nonsense. This 12 point guide is an excellent overview of how you can spot any untruths that you might see floating around your social media pages, you know, like how injecting bicarb soda cures cancer (it doesn't).

It's women who get pap smears on the regular, and girls who are more likely to be up-to-date on their human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines -- but a new study confirms that the virus puts men at risk, too. Men were six times more likely than women to have a high-risk type of HPV in their mouth or throat, where it can cause oropharyngeal cancer.

Dogs are fluffy, slobbering, pooping creatures that don't hesitate to sniff (and maybe taste) any unknown object they see on the ground. So, if we're trying to protect our health, is it OK that we let them share our home, sleep in our beds, and lick our faces?

Vaccines for dogs are a good thing. Nobody wants Mister Floofles to die of Canine Hepatitis, Canine Distemper, Canine Parainfluenza or Canine Parvovirus. But it's easy to get spooked by rumours of the side effects of vaccines, and some people are turning down shots for their pets.

Welcome back to Dose of Reality, where we see whether the week's health news is really worth worrying -- or celebrating -- about. Today we're facing down death and disease, and the news is actually mostly good!

Flu shots work, and are a smart way to reduce the chances that you'll end up sick this winter. But that's not the impression you might get if you listen to the rumour mill. Flu shot myths abound, and it's time to put the biggest ones to rest.

There's a new flu shot every year, to match the particular flu strains floating around. Some years the shot isn't a good match. Even so, the flu shot is still a good bet.