Flu Basics

Researchers Try to Boost Supply of Flu Vaccine

Medical researchers bracing for a global influenza epidemic are in frantic search of a way to perform a loaves-and-fishes miracle with the world's skimpy annual production of flu vaccine.


2 Common Flu Drugs Fail Against Virus

Federal health officials advise physicians not to use amantadine and rimantadine because nearly all the virus in current flu outbreaks in the United States is resistant.


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How Big a Killer Is the Flu?

  Flu Heart disease All causes
Number of U.S. deaths
in a typical year
36,000 703,000 2,443,000
Number who could have died 288,357,0000
(total U.S. population)
Annual risk 0.01%
(1 out of 10,000)
0.24%
(24 out of 10,000)
0.85%
(85 out of 10,000)
SOURCES: 2002 Federal death certificate data; estimate of flu deaths comes from Thompson et. al JAMA 2003, 289:179-186. | GRAPHIC: The Washington Post - October 25, 2005
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