Flu Update

With flu season approaching, third years studying hard to prepare for their immunization clinic and American Pharmacists Month getting ready to advertise to the world that people need to be immunized, several questions come to mind-Will their be enough vaccines? Whatever happened to bird flu? Who needs to be vaccinated?

Well, how about the first one: Will their be enough vaccines? I just saw an article on Time (always a reputable medical source...but hey, we're not getting too in depth I suppose) that states the CDC will have around 132 million vaccines-but, not everyone who should get vaccinated, does get vaccinated. This article does go into pretty decent detail about who should be getting the vaccine, but ask any third year student for more details. I know I'm learned up!! Also, this articl also mentions that the FluMist vaccine is now approved for children down to the age of 2-so classmates, you can be confident in putting that answer down for next weeks quiz!

Another item that has been around for the past couple years, and that is of course, the Avian Flu or H5N1 (so, it's a Wikipedia link, but it has a good summary of the flu, sorry for my references). Also, here's a link to the CDC current situation-Nothing too current, but of course it's not to flu season yet. I hate the "Wait and see" method, but with no vaccine, I guess that's what we have to do. And hope to be at the front of the line for Tamiflu.