Influenza

Physicians will have the sad task of filling out the death certificates of those who die of influenza as a consequence of this vaccine shortage. Causes of death? Primary cause: the market system. Secondary cause: influenza. That's what I'll be signing. J.R. Kent MD Huntington Beach

In the midst of a now-two-week spell of subzero temperatures, Minnesotans bundled up to take their families out for flu shots after three children in the state died from the virus in the last dozen days. The deaths led state public health officials to urge everyone to get vaccinated against the influenza virus. All three children who died, two 8-year-olds and a 17-month-old, had the influenza A strain covered by this year's flu shot.

An 83-year-old woman has died of influenza, possibly the fourth death this season from the flu in San Diego County, the county Department of Health Services reported Monday. The woman's cause of death was reported by her physician. The death of a 56-year-old man last week was attributed by his physician to influenza. The county plans no tests in either case, officials said.

Only one state, Alaska, reported outbreaks of influenza for the last week of November and the first week of December, the national Centers for Disease Control said Thursday.

Strains of influenza-A virus resistant to a new anti-viral drug develop rapidly and are apparently transmitted to healthy people who are taking the drug to guard against the viral disease, researchers from the University of Virginia have found. The new study assessed the ability of the drug rimantadine to prevent the transmission of the highly contagious, sometimes fatal disease in households where one family member already had influenza.

So you're in bed with the flu and you've had it up to here with watching the world turn and all those children. What you need are some facts about flu: * Influenza is caused by three types of viruses. These viruses get nice and comfy in your respiratory tract, where they produce a cough, sore throat and runny nose. * What separates flu from a cold is the fever, fatigue, severe headache, muscle aches and joint pains that accompany flu.

Fish farming in the Third World is increasing the risk of a global influenza epidemic against which humans have no natural immunity, a report in Nature magazine warns. Researchers said the risk comes from a new virus that could be created by the breeding of fish near pigs and poultry--a common practice in some Asian countries. Profs.

Settled in her second-floor office in the Health Services Administration Building in downtown Los Angeles, Dr. Shirley Fannin was happy to share her expertise about the bugs of winter. As director of disease control programs for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, she's seen good years, bad years and everything in between. But first, she needs to vent a bit about that word "flu," often used as a catchall phrase to describe a host of ailments.

Los Angeles County is experiencing an increase in the number of cases of respiratory disease, but absenteeism from work has not been excessive and the number of deaths caused by influenza and pneumonia has not been unusual, a county health official said Friday. Dr. Shirley Fannin, deputy director of the Department of Health Services, said that although some of the illnesses are influenza, the majority are infections by other types of viruses and bacteria.