Follow your doctor's instructions about any restrictions on food, beverages, or activity.

Influenza virus injectable (killed virus) vaccine will not cause you to become ill with the flu virus that it contains. However, you may have flu-like symptoms at any time during flu season that may be caused by other strains of influenza virus.

You should not receive a booster vaccine if you had a life-threatening allergic reaction after the first shot.

Keep track of any and all side effects you have after receiving this vaccine. If you ever need to receive influenza virus vaccine in the future, you will need to tell your doctor if the previous shot caused any side effects.

Get emergency medical help if you have any of these signs of an allergic reaction: hives; difficulty breathing; swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or throat.

Call your doctor at once if you have a serious side effect such as:

• severe weakness or unusual feeling in your arms and legs (may occur 2 to 4 weeks after you receive the vaccine);

• high fever;

• seizure (convulsions); or

• unusual bleeding.

Less serious side effects may include:

• low fever, chills;

• mild fussiness or crying;

• redness, bruising, pain, swelling, or a lump where the vaccine was injected;

• headache, tired feeling; or

• joint or muscle pain.

This is not a complete list of side effects and others may occur. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report vaccine side effects to the US Department of Health and Human Services at 1-800-822-7967.

Before receiving this vaccine, tell your doctor if you are using phenytoin (Dilantin), theophylline (Respbid, Slo-Bid, Theodur, Uniphyl), or a blood thinner (warfarin, Coumadin, Jantoven).

Also tell the doctor if you have recently received drugs or treatments that can weaken the immune system, including:

• an oral, nasal, inhaled, or injectable steroid medicine;

• medications to treat psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, or other autoimmune disorders, such as azathioprine (Imuran), etanercept (Enbrel), leflunomide (Arava), and others; or

• medicines to treat or prevent organ transplant rejection, such as basiliximab (Simulect), cyclosporine (Sandimmune, Neoral, Gengraf), muromonab-CD3 (Orthoclone), mycophenolate mofetil (CellCept), sirolimus (Rapamune), or tacrolimus (Prograf).

If you are using any of these medications, you may not be able to receive the vaccine, or may need to wait until the other treatments are finished.

This list is not complete and other drugs may interact with influenza virus vaccine. Tell your doctor about all medications you use. This includes prescription, over-the-counter, vitamin, and herbal products. Do not start a new medication without telling your doctor.

Your doctor or pharmacist can provide more information about this vaccine. Additional information is available from your local health department or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.