Australia has had an early and severe flu season this year — and often the United States sees a similar pattern, said Dr. Kerry Frommer Fierstein, a pediatrician with Allied Physicians Group Pediatric Health Associates in Plainview and chief executive officer of Allied Physicians Group.

Flu season in the United States lasts from October to April. That means getting the vaccine this month if possible, and certainly by Thanksgiving and the December holidays, when people are exposed to crowds, Fierstein said.

The strain of the flu that’s causing hospitalizations and even deaths in Australia is one of the four strains covered in this year’s flu vaccine, she said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending that children 6 months and older be vaccinated. And it’s putting the kibosh on the nasal vaccine — in which the virus was sprayed into kids’ noses, avoiding the need for a needle stick — because it hasn’t been effective enough. Pregnant women as well as family members of babies younger than 6 months especially need to be vaccinated to protect the fetus and babies who can’t get the vaccine themselves, Fierstein said.