According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year about 36,000 people die from influenza.

In Morgantown, a study is underway that might help prevent some from getting the flu in the first place.

If you are a patient at the West Virginia University Urgent Care in Morgantown, you will notice some strange changes: a tall object in the exam room and nurses walking around with devices strapped to their backs.

"We're trying to find out if flu virus is spread through the air, like when people cough and sneeze, if that's generating the flu that other people can inhale and catch," said Biomedical Engineer Bill Lindsley.

Those poles and packs are actually air samplers.

"Air is pulled through the device, the particles collect and then we can take them back to the lab and we can see if we've collected flu virus or not," Lindsley explained.

The WVU Department of Emergency Medicine and NIOSH, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, are teaming up to conduct the three-week study.

"If we can better understand how the virus is spread, the behavior of the virus," said WVU Department of Emergency Medicine Adjunct Professor Steve Davis, "then we can look at interventions to help prevent not only healthcare workers from getting sick but especially if you have a little child and want to bring them to the emergency department or urgent care - they come in for a fracture and you don't want them going home with the flu."

Davis says this research is the first of its kind.

"So it's really exciting that we can do this in West Virginia and at WVU."

Researchers say they hope to have the results by March, but in the meantime, doctors say it is still important to get a flu vaccine each year.