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Subject: Pneumonia, Flu Shots Urged
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Pneumonia, Flu Shots Urged
The Associated Press
Friday, October 8 1999 02:03 AM EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) - Too few adults get flu shots or a vital vaccination against bacterial pneumonia, say health officials who warn that both diseases kill tens of thousands of Americans annually - a growing but preventable menace if only people were immunized.
``Don't wait for your doctor to recommend vaccination - be proactive and ask for the shots,'' Dr. Walter Orenstein, vaccine chief for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, advised Thursday. ``It's your health and your life.''
Vaccines against both flu and pneumonia are free for Medicare patients - those most at risk - yet one-third of such patients don't get regular flu shots, and 55 percent have never had a pneumonia vaccine, concluded a government study released Thursday.
But the shots also are vital for certain younger people, said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic, recalling how he had to amputate the hands and legs of a young mother to save her from a pneumococcal infection that had spread into her blood.
``An epidemic of apathy and ignorance'' about the need for vaccination ``fuels an epidemic of disease and death,'' Poland said. ``This is a public health emergency.''
Indeed, the diseases seem to be a growing menace.
Influenza in an average year kills 20,000 Americans. The government has not yet finished analyzing last winter's cases, but preliminary data suggest the flu killed many more people last year, said CDC's Dr. Keiji Fukuda.
Of additional concern, influenza has started causing unusual outbreaks during the summer, he said. Up to 40,000 people, mostly tourists, from 47 countries were sickened by a flu outbreak in Alaska in summer 1998, and a similar outbreak occurred this year. The CDC also spotted summer outbreaks in Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma and Texas.
Still, flu is always worse in the winter. People need a flu shot annually because different influenza virus strains circle the globe each year. The optimal vaccination time is between now and mid-November.
``There is no way to predict'' how bad flu will be this winter, Fukuda stressed.
But officials estimate that one in 10 Americans could suffer needlessly if vaccination rates don't improve.
A flu shot isn't the only protection: Too many patients, and even doctors, do not know that a vaccine against pneumococcal infection is vital, too, said Surgeon General David Satcher. Unlike flu shots, most Americans need just one dose of pneumococcal vaccine for lifetime protection.
Pneumococcal bacteria cause half a million cases of pneumonia each year, plus infections in the brain, ear and other organs. Some 40,000 Americans a year die.
If those numbers aren't convincing, Poland says another reason for vaccination is that pneumococci are rapidly evolving to defy antibiotic treatment.
Contrary to popular belief, younger people often need the vaccine, Poland said, describing that young mother whose limbs he had to amputate after her respiratory infection spread into her bloodstream and caused gangrene.
She should have been vaccinated, because her spleen had been removed several years earlier because of an accident - and removing the spleen weakens the immune system, he said.
Flu and pneumococcal vaccination is highly recommended for:
Everyone over 64. (One physician group recommends flu vaccine starting at age 50, something the CDC is investigating.)
Younger people who have chronic heart or lung disorders, including asthma, or who have diabetes, kidney disease or a weakened immune system.
Anyone in close contact with those high-risk patients, including family members and health care workers.
Flu vaccine also is recommended for women who will be in the second or third trimester of pregnancy during flu season.
Even healthy young people without those risks can benefit: One recent study found people who got a flu shot lost 43 percent fewer days of work.
Why don't people get vaccinated? The new Medicare study found 57 percent of the unvaccinated said they didn't know they needed the pneumonia shot and 19 percent didn't know they needed the flu shot.
Too often, doctors don't recommend the vaccinations, public health officials complained - and doctors often refuse to give flu shots after mid-November. Later shots can still be helpful, Fukuda said.
APO/Flu-&-Pneumonia/
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