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This year's flu vaccine seems to be working very effectively, report officials at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) in Atlanta on Wednesday. The preliminary estimates explain that the vaccine is a good match to the strains of the viruses that are prevalent everywhere.

"This means that getting a flu vaccine this season reduced the risk of having to go to the doctor because of flu by nearly 60 percent," said Dr. Joseph Bresee, chief of the CDC's Epidemiology and Prevention Branch, according to Medical News Today. "It's good news and underscores the importance and the benefit of both annual and ongoing vaccination efforts this season."

The overall effectiveness of the vaccine is quite good, at 59 percent. It has been observed to be 51 percent effective against the H1N1 strain, 76 percent effective against all influenza B strains and 79 percent effective against the B/Yamagata strain of B viruses, the CDC announced during its annual assessment meeting.

In the 2014-2015 flu season, the vaccine was less than 20 percent effective against the dominant strain at that time. Hence, by the end of Pennsylvania's 2014-15 flu season, the state Health Department had documented that there were more than 55,000 confirmed flu cases and 221 related deaths.