influenza

Judging by all the people sneezing and coughing on my flight last week, and the ubiquitous “Get your flu shot” signs at every pharmacy, it’s obvious we’ve begun the dreaded cold and flu season.

En español | With flu season about to start, health officials reassured Americans that the new, updated flu vaccine now available should do a better job than last year’s.

It's already a bad flu season for those age 65-plus and now there's more bad news: This season's flu shot will only cut your chances of getting sick by 23 percent, compared to the more typical 60 percent in previous years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Sorry, folks, but we’re headed into a nasty flu season.

It’s that season again. The one with lots of coughing, sneezing, sniffling, aching and carrying around large wads of tissues. So how do you protect yourself from colds and the flu, other than staying home from now through May?

Comienza el mes de octubre y para mi familia significa que ha llegado el mes en el que todos nos vacunamos contra la influenza. Sin embargo, este año creo que voy a aprovechar la oportunidad para revisar detalladamente las necesidades de vacunación de cada miembro de mi familia, más allá de esta vacuna anual. En mi casa vive un diabético tipo 1, dos niños y yo, que trabajo como voluntaria en un hospital que recibe una inmensa cantidad de personas cada día. Ahora que lo pienso, todos en mi casa somos parte de alguna categoría de personas particularmente vulnerables a enfermedades infecciosas: pacientes de enfermedades crónicas, niños y trabajadores de hospital.

Como ya les he contado, mi esposo es diabético Tipo 1 (insulinodependiente) desde niño. Y si bien es ésta una enfermedad crónica, tratamos siempre de encontrar en ello algún aspecto positivo para poder seguir adelante disfrutando de la vida con salud en nuestros años maduros. Uno de esos aspectos es que tenemos que llevar un estilo de vida saludable y no olvidar los cuidados preventivos indicados por el endocrinólogo. Digamos que nos cuidamos bien.

The last flu season was a record-setter - and not in a good way.

Normally during flu season the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lets us know the good and bad news, tracking how fast the flu is spreading, how severe it is and how well those flu shots are working. The information is especially important for figuring out next year's batch of vaccines.

When you're flat on your back with the flu, the ceiling becomes a blank slate on which you can write your thoughts.  Still bedbound on day five of what experts say is usually a three-day event (I would love to personally update these "experts"), I have moved on from feeling sorry for myself to thinking about the advantages of this dramatic interruption in my life's reel. I found 10 benefits to offset the inconvenient and uncomfortable minuses: