With all the concern about bird flu, should you even bother getting a regular flu shot this year? The experts say yes. Here's why.

Even though the regular flu shot offers no protection against bird flu, there are several reasons to get one.

“Because if you get the flu and you've had the shot, you have a pretty good idea you may have the bad one...” said Dr. Anne Marie Kimball at the University of Washington. “If you haven't had the shot and you get the flu, you don't know how seriously to take it.”

That's because symptoms are similar: fever, chills, muscle ache, cough and feeling generally awful.

Infectious disease specialist Dr. Robert Rakita says it's important to keep things in perspective. At the moment the seasonal flu is the far bigger threat.

“Everybody's worried about the avian flu because of the possibility of a pandemic, but the seasonal flu kills 36,000 people in the United States --at least -- each year, whereas worldwide the avian flu has killed less than 100 people so far,” he pointed out.

Still not convinced? One way the avian flu can mutate and spread is by combining with a human strain. To help prevent that one thing you can do is get the flu vaccine because that would be important in terms of spreading any type of flu.

Flu shots are now available for anyone who wants to get one.