Every year companies lose thousands of dollars because employees fall sick with the flu. About 5% - 20% of Americans catch the flu every year. Flu season officially started about a month ago. Many employers encourage their employees to get a flu shot. These flu shots are often subsidized and many pharmacies have flu shot hours. Over 145 million doses of the flu vaccine will be dispensed this season. You can get one for around $15.00 - $25.00.

Not only should you consider getting a flu shot, but you should also consider a flu shot for your kids, depending on age and recommendation from your pediatrician. Children getting the flu generally means mom or dad has to stay home to care for their child, potentially resulting in loss of wages for the parent and loss of productivity for the employer.

Interestingly, Google just launched a flu tracker- a free service that tracks the number of flu cases in the U.S. Flu Trends is actually compiled by putting together the number of searches related to flu, coughs, colds, fever, etc. in countries with influenza outbreaks. They have found a high correlation between Internet searches and actual flu symptoms. You can go online and see if your area is showing a high likelihood of flu and take action accordingly – either by getting the flu shot or ensuring you are all eating more healthy foods, taking supplements and getting plenty of rest.

Of course, the CDC (Center for Disease control) has official tracking methodology, but this requires counting actual reported cases of influenza outbreaks. This is not an immediate source of data. So for speed, sites like Flu Trends are a good proxy.