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November 22, 2004:
Facts About the Flu
Interview
with James Keany, M.D., Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, CA
Mike
Carruthers:
Of course you already know there’s a shortage of flu vaccines
this year.
And when
you ask if this is a public health crisis - people will people
die because of the lack of flu shots? Absolutely. There will
be more deaths this year from the flu than would have been if
we had the full compliment of the flu vaccine.
James
Keany, emergency room doctor at Mission Hospital
in Mission Viejo, Callifornia, says there is some good news
in all of this tale of the flu this year.
There
is an actual cure for the flu. There’s a medicine now - there’s
about five of them available on the market. And, it has to be
started within the first forty-eight hours of symptoms. Otherwise
it has no effect. It’s anti-viral medicine, and you have to
go to your doctor and ask for that.
But interestingly,
Dr. Keany says everybody who gets the flu should not necessarily
get the cure.
The down
side of it is that the flu, that flu bug in that person becomes
resistant to it. So, if you have an elderly person in your home
and you get the flu and you’re a young healthy person, there’s
a good chance that you’re going to pass on a resistant strain
then to the elderly person in your home. If you do have the
flu, we may not give it to you, and we may actually give it
to the elderly person or the person at high risk, cause this
can be used also as prophylaxis If the person didn’t get the
vaccine, they can take this medicine and prevent getting the
flu just for a few days while they’re being exposed to it.
Tomorrow
how to protect yourself from the flu if you don’t get the vaccine,
I’m Mike Carruthers and that’s Something You Should Know.
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