Posted on 01/25/2013 3:31:50 PM PST by BenLurkin
MISSION VIEJO [california] (CBSLA.com) — Emergency rooms across the Southland have been pushed to near-capacity levels amid a surge of influenza activity in the western United States that has lead to several flu-related deaths.
A Mission Hospital official has confirmed that a 46-year-old woman who tested positive for influenza A died on Tuesday.
The mother of two – who reportedly did not receive the flu vaccine – appeared to be otherwise healthy, officials said.
While flu activity is declining across much of the U.S., its toll is just beginning to emerge in the West.
Statewide, there have been at least five people who have died from the flu this season, including two in the greater Los Angeles area and one in the Inland Empire, according to California health officials.
KNX 1070′s Jan Stevens reports one Mission Viejo doctor is warning the vaccine may not protect everyone
“I’ve admitted a few patients that were quite ill and actually had gotten the flu shot and tested positive for the flu,” said Dr. Jim Keany with Mission Hospital.
However, Keany said that particular case is not enough evidence to convince him the vaccine is ineffective.
“We know that when people get the flu shot, the intensity and the duration of the illness is shorter and less,” he said. “You’re less likely to be hospitalized, you’re less likely to get the complications, such as pneumonia, and you’re less likely to die from the flu.”
Tamiflu can be an effective prevention option, Keany added, but it must be taken with 24-to-48 hours of the onset of symptoms.
I’ve never had a flu vaccination and have never had the flu. Ditto for the rest of my family.
So does the flu exist only in people’s imaginations? What is your point?
Tamiflu IS NOT PREVENTATIVE. At best if taken within the first 48 hours of developing te flu it may reduce symptoms by 1day. And it has lots of nasty potential side effects.
Ditto. Every time I hear of someone getting the flu, they invariably had the flu shot.
Some people are carriers and never get the flu but pass it on to other people without knowing it. For an interesting read, check out a book called “The Black Death” about the plagues in Europe.
I believe you because if you have ever had the full blown flu, it is an unforgettable experience.
I had the flu shot and the flu but the symptoms were much reduced and the duration shorter. Body aches for a day, no fever but a prolonged dry hack reminiscent of a long night drinking beer and smoking luckies back in the day.
Had the flu shot back in early Nov. At christmas time got a nasty sore throat that lasted for days and then affected the upper respiratory tract. Never had any fever but I’m not sure if the flu shot semi-protected me or if I just caught some other bug non-related to the flu. Of course I travel on planes a whole lot and always subject to some crap.
A number of the dead are otherwise healthy.
I got the vaccine during an annual physical. I got the flu a month later.
Sounds like an episode of “House.”
Don’t fly much these days but I am hugged every day by my young granddaughters. I’ll stick with the hugs despite the bugs.
I had never taken the flu vaccine before I had the flu. Then I came down the flu and have never been so sick...I spent a solid week flat of my back in bed not wanting to do anything but be left alone in my misery. I was so thankful when I started feeling human again, that if there’s the slightest chance that getting a flu shot will spare me that misery again, I will be first in line.
Just wonder how the “Anti-Vax people are evil” crowd are going to spin this....
You do not have to have a PhD in Biology or a MD in anything to understand that, if you put even a dead virus in a persons body, they can get sick. In fact, with most illnesses, what people expectorate when they cough and sneeze are mostly dead disease cells There is no difference getting snot on your hands or getting disease injected in you
Never will take the flu shot. It is not very effective
I got the flu almost every year, until I started getting the flu shot. Have not had the flu in a decade.
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