Flu

Like the common cold, the flu is an upper respiratory viral infection. But that’s where the similarities end. The flu, short for “influenza,” is often much more severe. It can send you straight to bed, where you remain for several days with a fever, body aches, no engery, no appetite, and eventually cold-like symptoms, especially stuffed, runny nose and cough.

Every winter, flu infects some 40 million Americans, costing the nation $928 million in medical expenses and $10.5 billion in lost school and work days.The worst cold might lead to bronchitis or a sinus infection. But for the elderly or those with asthma and other chronic respiratory conditions, flu can be fatal, progressing to a form of bacterial pneumonia that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year. In addition, once or twice each century, a particularly lethal flu strikes. The 1918-19 epidemic killed 20 million people worldwide (700,000 in the U.S). No one knows when the next killer flu will strike, but the experts agree we’re about due.

“Flu is a big deal,” says flu specialist Steven Mostow, M.D., chairman of the department of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver.”If you’re elderly, it can kill you. And if you’re younger, it can knock you flat on your back for a week.”

In the U.S., the annual flu season runs from Thanksgiving to Easter, though the worst outbreaks typically occur from late December to early March.

Flu is caused by three viruses, identified as A, B, and C. Type-A flu (also called influenza A) causes the worst symptoms and the most complications, says Nancy Arden, R.N, a senior official at the Influenza Branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Type-B flu can also cause severe illness, but it’s symptoms tend to be less severe and don’t linger as long. Type C flu is hardly even an illness. When public health officials say “flu,” they mean Type A and B.

Then there’s “stomach flu.” “It’s not flu at all,” Dr. Mostow explains, “It’s a common misnomer for viral infections of the digestive tract, medically known as gastroenteritis.”

Flu spreads through the air. You inhale the virus Colds can also spread through the air, but flu spreads much more easily. “If you put a cold sufferer in a room full of people who are susceptible, several will catch the cold,” the CDC’s Arden says. “But if you put a person with influenza A in that same room, within one to three days, most of them will get the flu.”

One famous study of flu transmission involved 54 passengers on a commercial jet. One boarded the five-hour flight infected with influenza A, and within three days, 72 percent of the other passengers came down with flu. Another involved a tour group traveling to Alaska. One had influenza A, and within a few days, more than half the group had caught it.

Flu shots

# The best preventive. The CDC urges every elderly person to get the annual flu shot, available every autumn. Unfortuantely, the older you are, the less effective the shot is because most older people’s immune systems are not as robust as they used to be, so the vaccine does not stimulate as powerful a defensive response. “But at any age,” the CDC’s Nancy Arden says, “if you get the flu after you’ve had a flu shot, it’s milder than it otherwise would have been.”

The CDC recommends getting immunized in October or November. It takes a week or two after vaccination to develop effective immunity, Arden says.

You have to get vaccinated every year because flu viruses change constantly. The CDC tracks flu outbreaks around the world, and each spring, directs vaccine makers to produce a vaccine to protect against the Type A and B strains expected to strike the U.S. the following winter.

Anyone can get a flu shot–including pregnant women after their first trimester. The only people who should not get vaccinated are those with serious allergies to eggs, which are used to manufacture the vaccine.

Many health departments make flu shots available at low cost or for free every October and November. Call yours. In addition, some pharmacy chains also offer low-cost flu shots in their stores each fall. Check the ones near you.

Unfortunately, several myths keep many people from getting immunized:

“I can’t be bothered.” It takes maybe an hour and a few bucks to get a flu shot. If you don’t get one, and catch the flu, you’re out of commission for at least a week–and if you’re elderly, you’re risking your life.

“Flu shots cause the flu.” Absolutely not. A flu shot is your best protection against the flu. The reason some people believe this myth, Dr. Mostow explains, is that, coincidentally, they catch colds after getting vaccinated and mistakenly blame the illness on the shot. Or they catch the flu immediately after getting vaccinated, before the shot has had a chance to immunize them. Or they catch the flu despite getting vaccinated.

“Flu shots cause side effects.” Side effects, if any, are usually mild–soreness at the injection site for a day or so, with perhaps a little achiness or hives. Children sometimes develop a brief low-grade fever. But these side effects are trivial compared with a case of flu, Arden says.

“Flu shots can cause paralysis.” No. Way back in 1976, a few of the millions of people who received that year’s shot developed a rare, paralytic disorder, Guillain-BarrŽ syndrome. The episode tarnished the flu shot’s reputation for years. Today, experts consider that incident a freak accident, and point out that since 1976, more than 150 million flu shots have been administered with no serious side effects.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites