(dailyRx News) Americans might get a flu vaccine to avoid getting sick, but they might not consider the large scale outcome of this decision — the millions of flu cases across the country avoided through vaccination.

In a new study, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) used a variety of data sources to estimate the effects of vaccination on last year’s flu season.

These researchers estimated that vaccines prevented over 6 million illnesses and 79,000 flu hospitalizations, but they also estimated that these numbers could have been greatly improved if more people received the vaccine.

Read more from RxWiki HERE.