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Donald McNeil writes in the NYT that this year’s flu season may be deadlier than usual because this year’s flu vaccine is a relatively poor match to a new virus that is now circulating. “Flu is unpredictable, but what we’ve seen thus far is concerning,” says Dr. Thomas R. Frieden. According to the CDC, five U.S. children have died from flu-related complications so far this season. Four of them were infected with influenza A viruses, including three cases of H3N2 infections. The new H3 subtype first appeared overseas in March but because it was not found in many samples in the United States until September, it is now too late to change the vaccine. Because of the increased danger from the H3 strain — and because B influenza strains can also cause serious illness — the CDC recommends that patients with asthma, diabetes or lung or heart problems see a doctor at the first sign of a possible flu, and that doctors quickly prescribe antivirals like Tamiflu or Relenza. “H3N2 viruses tend to be associated with more severe seasons,” said Dr. Tom Frieden. “The rate of hospitalization and death can be twice as high or more in flu seasons when H3 doesn’t predominate.”
(Score: 3, Interesting) by gringer on Sunday December 07 2014, @07:40PM
I attended a lecture by Professor Richard Beasley, who has been doing a few studies around medical dogmas that don't seem to be supported by research. One of Professor Beasley's hypotheses is that Influenza (and more generally infection) can be dealt with more effectively by supporting a feverish state, rather than trying to reduce the fever. He noticed that the most virulent Influenza strains seem to have a much higher denaturation temperature, so suggests that the best way to deal with Influenza is to wrap up, ride the fever, and sweat it out (making sure you have plenty of fluids to replace water loss).
A big annoyance for him is the over-prescription of paracetamol (acetaminophen, tylenol, panadol) to control fever. Unfortunately, this is such a dogmatic view that there aren't many human studies about it. In every measure of improvement of fever that could be tested (including body temperature and "febrile convulsions"), paracetamol did not improve the situation:
The limited evidence that does exist [from animal studies] suggests that the administration of antipyretics may have the potential to increase the severity of influenza illness and the risk of mortality.... Although there isn't a huge amount of data ... we would say there's no benefit of treating a fever with paracetamol and there's potential harm in terms of making the illness worse or longer. So our recommendation would be not to treat a fever, but to use paracetamol as a pain reliever ... If you've got a headache or sore muscles it's reasonable to take it; it's very effective and safe in that setting.
More details here:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/diseases/news/article.cfm?c_id=149&objectid=10737700 [nzherald.co.nz]
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by gringer on Sunday December 07 2014, @07:48PM
Here's the paper associated with that news article:
www.nzma.org.nz/journal/read-the-journal/all-issues/2010-2019/2011/vol-124-no-1338/letter-eyers
Ask me about Sequencing DNA in front of Linus Torvalds [youtube.com]