PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Flu season is approaching, and the Philadelphia Health Department is among regional organizations offering free flu immunizations to residents.

Today, at the Philadelphia Senior Center, Dr. Caroline Johnson of the health department’s Division of Disease Control said that keeping yourself healthy is just one part of the equation.

“The flu shot also helps prevent you from spreading it to other people,” she notes.

It’s those other people, she says, that may benefit from your flu shot.

“Influenza, to a healthy adult, is not especially dangerous, but it causes about 36,000 deaths a year in the US,” most often to the infirm or immunocompromised.

Dr. Johnson says flu season tends to peak around the holidays or the first of the year.

“The optimal time for a vaccination to prevent flu is between October to March,” she advises. A list of future flu clinics can be found at www.phila.gov/health.

Reported by Hadas Kuznits, KYW Newsradio 1060