TITUSVILLE, Fla. – Local emergency rooms and doctor's offices are quickly filing up with flu victims and Brevard County health officials say they are seeing a rise in the H1-N1 strain, better known as, swine flu.
Back in 2009, the swine flu caused an epidemic and killed five people in Brevard County.
"And that one has the propensity for generally going after younger people or middle age people, not necessarily the elderly as much, but everybody needs the vaccine," said Brevard County epidemiologist Barry Inman.
Earlier this week, Brevard County health officials told Local 6 that a Melbourne woman in her 30's died from the flu and two others were on life support.
Thursday, Inman said a 47-year-old man is on life support at Parish Medical Center in Titusville. He says it's crucial for everyone to get a flu shot.
"We take vaccines to protect ourselves, but also to protect our families and our communities. With the shot, if you get the flu, i's very likely you're going to effect one, two, three, maybe even four people," said Inman.
He says there are certain risk factors that make folks more susceptible to get the flu, like obesity, age, diabetes and pregnancy.
Some woman worry that the flu vaccine isn't safe during their pregnancy, but health officials say it's safe and it can save lives.
Due to the rapid increase of flu activity, Target is lowering their price for vaccinations through the end of the January.