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The Flu is Killing Up to 4,000 Americans a Week

Wow thats crazy. But how many of these unfortunate souls had other precipitating conditions that let the flu push them over the edge - weakened immune systems, chemotherapy or such. If not the flu, pneumonia or something else would have got them down the road anyways.
 
mtneer said:
Wow thats crazy. But how many of these unfortunate souls had other precipitating conditions that let the flu push them over the edge - weakened immune systems, chemotherapy or such. If not the flu, pneumonia or something else would have got them down the road anyways.
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10 year old kids are dying.
 
I got the shot (my parents made me). I haven't had the flu since I was a kid, but it's always extremely disturbing when I hear about the flu killing perfectly healthy people. I have a cold right now and unfortunately, since I'm a college student and I work at a library, I'm basically much more likely to pick something up -_-
 
ThisBougieLife said:
I got the shot (my parents made me). I haven't had the flu since I was a kid, but it's always extremely disturbing when I hear about the flu killing perfectly healthy people. I have a cold right now and unfortunately, since I'm a college student and I work at a library, I'm basically much more likely to pick something up -_-
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You're not as likely to die from it, but you're way more likely to contract it on a college campus. Good on you to get the shot.
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mtneer said:
Wow thats crazy. But how many of these unfortunate souls had other precipitating conditions that let the flu push them over the edge - weakened immune systems, chemotherapy or such. If not the flu, pneumonia or something else would have got them down the road anyways.
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Pneumonia is a side-effect of flu and you don't know if you may not know if you have an issue that makes you susceptible to the virus.
 
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Very sobering numbers.

I read of an otherwise healthy mother just died from the flu. Her doctor gave her a prescription to be filled. Once she found out her copay was $116, she thought she would save her family the money by not getting the medicine. Her husband found out what she did and went immediately to the pharmacy to get her prescription. Unfortunately, his quickness wasn't quick enough, as she had to be taken to the ER and died shortly thereafter.
 
I'm just curious why the flu has become a 'thing' in recent years.

I grew up in the 1980s. You got the flu, you puked, had aches, hot and chills, and took cold medicine. But then you got over it at the most in a week and went on.

There were no mass epidemic of flu kill stories every year. Hell, TheraFlu as a OTC med product didn't show up on the shelves until the late 90s.

I'm no anti-vaccer (both my kids have their vaccinations, my parents made sure my sister and I were vaccinated) but I question this push to give me a shot every year.

On top of that, nine times out of ten the vaccine is for the wrong strain.
 
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I had the flu in the beginning of the year and all I can say it was nasty. The first two days of the flu I was running a temperature and had the chills so bad that no amount of blankets kept me warm. The first 5 days I felt like total crap and just wanted to stay in bed all day long. During the time I developed a cough that lasted well over 2 weeks and I was going to go to the Doctor but it suddenly cleared up. I can see where people are dying from the flu and I'm pretty surprise I didn't go to the doctor or hospital.
 
eyoungren said:
I'm just curious why the flu has become a 'thing' in recent years.

I grew up in the 1980s. You got the flu, you puked, had aches, hot and chills, and took cold medicine. But then you got over it at the most in a week and went on.
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In 1918, about 20 million died world wide (with a much smaller population).

Every year there are different strains that are more or less harmful.
 
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NT1440 said:
10 year old kids are dying.
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Yeah, there was an 11 year old from my hometown in CT who died a few weeks ago, very sad.

BasicGreatGuy said:
Very sobering numbers.

I read of an otherwise healthy mother just died from the flu. Her doctor gave her a prescription to be filled. Once she found out her copay was $116, she thought she would save her family the money by not getting the medicine. Her husband found out what she did and went immediately to the pharmacy to get her prescription. Unfortunately, his quickness wasn't quick enough, as she had to be taken to the ER and died shortly thereafter.
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Typically you only are supposed to prescribe Tamiflu if you’d otherwise be hospitalizing the person or they have risk factors. You’re really only supposed to give it if the patient is seen within 2 days of developing symptoms. The hospitals are completely overloaded- I was visiting a general hospital for work and there were people parked in the hallways. Really not because people are dying, but because people are now overly aware and seeking treatment.

The Meta analyses on Tamiflu is concerning too. It has not been shown to reduce hospital stays or complications. Some studies suggest it’s not even that effective in reducing death in high risk populations (the population for which the drug is reccomendrd). Viral infections are complicated and it is not the be all, end all of flu treatment unfortunately.

There’s a Japanese company right now trying to fast track a medicine based off on an anti-HIV drug (the process of infection of the flu and HIV are very similar) that allegedly will stop the flu iafter just one day. We’ll have to see if that lofty promise is really a reality, but the soonest it would be available is still months away.
 
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eyoungren said:
I'm just curious why the flu has become a 'thing' in recent years.

I grew up in the 1980s. You got the flu, you puked, had aches, hot and chills, and took cold medicine. But then you got over it at the most in a week and went on.

There were no mass epidemic of flu kill stories every year. Hell, TheraFlu as a OTC med product didn't show up on the shelves until the late 90s.

I'm no anti-vaccer (both my kids have their vaccinations, my parents made sure my sister and I were vaccinated) but I question this push to give me a shot every year.

On top of that, nine times out of ten the vaccine is for the wrong strain.
Click to expand...
There were deaths and cases of flu before, you just weren't as exposed to them through the internet
 
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I got called in by a hospital I used to work at (within the same hospital network- usually I work at a psych hospital) due to the overwhelming overload of patients (and probably burning out staff). It’s not very typical they call in extra help for clinical pharmacists.

Basically lots of people reporting with the flu, some with it, many with just a cold. Lots of people dehydrated (the worldwide shortage of IV bags isn’t helping- basically IV hydration have been restricted to people unable to to drink and Gatorade is given to those who can).
 
I was under the impression that the efficacy of Tamiflu lessens as the patient's age increases.
 
I got the flu shot back in October, sometime in December I came down with the flu, absolutely miserable & achy all over, bad cough. etc. Odd thing is that about a week or two before I got the flu, the spot in my upper arm where I got my flu shot became ridiculously achy & painful to the point it kept me up at night. Night after night, during the day, everything. It continued throughout the whole flu thing. I don't feel it any more thank god & am so grateful I changed my mind last year & didn't get the shot in my "working" arm for a change-up. Anyway, from what's been in the news about the flu this season, I do think the shot helped mitigate the worst of it for me despite the freaky arm pain.


I read recently that Tamiflu has been around for ages. Ha! I laugh. My doctor...well, never mind.
 
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