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Honored Contributor
Posts: 20,019
Registered: ‎08-08-2010

The article in the link even states that the cause of death has not been yet been confirmed. 

 

I haven't read all the replies here (none actually) but let's all get our selves in a panic, especially when we don't know the actual circumstances (her general health, if she had actually had the flu or not, whether there are other issues at hand, from drugs to alcohol, to suicide to unknown disease, etc.). 

 

Yep, let's just all find a reason to panic about the flu, even before it is medically confirmed that this was the cause of death.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 8,567
Registered: ‎03-14-2010

@dimin wrote:

 

Yikes, I never got a flu shot. I guess I should after reading all this knowledge information.


 

@dimin  Yes, influenza is nothing to dismiss or take lightly. I speak from experience. It is wise to get a flu shot and it's not to late to get one now Smiley Happy

Honored Contributor
Posts: 30,916
Registered: ‎05-10-2010

@dimin wrote:

 

Yikes, I never got a flu shot. I guess I should after reading all this knowledge information.


         Get one now, it's never too late.  Most people never do get the flu and even those who do suffer through it for a week or so and bounce right back.  But...there always is the risk that you might me one of the small minority who doesn't fare as well, who does have serious complications.  Don't risk it.  Protect yourself with the shot and you're done.  Same thing with the Shingles and Pneumonia vaccines.  

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,296
Registered: ‎09-18-2010

Well, that is just awful. I had seen where she passed, but didnt' click the link, didn't realize it was from the flu. Truly scary.

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,845
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

@happycat wrote:

Well, that is just awful. I had seen where she passed, but didnt' click the link, didn't realize it was from the flu. Truly scary.

 

 


@happycat . We don't know if that's a true fact yet.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 14,294
Registered: ‎11-03-2018

I guess the annual flu shot shaming threads are starting

 

 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,845
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

 

As for me, it's not because I'm too lazy or I feel that they "never get it right" (even a small percentage of protection is a good thing).  It's because I'm afraid of possible negative side effects.  Not the sore arm or mild fever but possible serious side effects.

 

The CDC says that it's safe but I still worry.  Maybe it's because the drug manufacturers aren't liable to any potential vaccine problems and can't be sued, yet the government has acknowledged that in very rare cases it can cause Guillian Barre syndrome.  Yes it's very rare but once you have some negative rare things happen to your family as I did mine then you pause & question.  Before I would have gotten my vaccines without question like most people.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,404
Registered: ‎06-20-2015
In the NY papers they mentioned it could be Malaria since she recently came back from a trip to Africa, and didn't tell her doctor she was going..Don't get yourselves in a panic about the Flu, which I started to without reading everything.
Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,739
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: This flu is wicked

[ Edited ]

from the CDC

 

 

NEW YORK — An estimated 80,000 Americans died of flu and its complications last winter — the disease’s highest death toll in at least four decades.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, revealed the total in an interview Tuesday night with The Associated Press.

Flu experts knew it was a very bad season, but at least one found size of the estimate surprising.

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“That’s huge,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert. The tally was nearly twice as much as what health officials previously considered a bad year, he said.

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In recent years, flu-related deaths have ranged from about 12,000 to — in the worst year — 56,000, according to the CDC.

Last fall and winter, the U.S. went through one of the most severe flu seasons in recent memory. It was driven by a kind of flu that tends to put more people in the hospital and cause more deaths, particularly among young children and the elderly.

The season peaked in early February. It was mostly over by the end of March, although some flu continued to circulate.

Making a bad year worse, the flu vaccine didn’t work very well. Experts nevertheless say vaccination is still worth it, because it makes illnesses less severe and save lives.

“I’d like to see more people get vaccinated,” Redfield told the AP at an event in New York. “We lost 80,000 people last year to the flu.”

CDC officials do not have exact counts of how many people die from flu each year. Flu is so common that not all flu cases are reported, and flu is not always listed on death certificates. So the CDC uses statistical models, which are periodically revised, to make estimates.

Fatal complications from the flu can include pneumonia, stroke and heart attack.

CDC officials called the 80,000 figure preliminary, and it may be slightly revised. But they said it is not expected to go down.

It eclipses the estimates for every flu season going back to the winter of 1976-1977. Estimates for many earlier seasons were not readily available.

Last winter was not the worst flu season on record, however. The 1918 flu pandemic, which lasted nearly two years, killed more than 500,000 Americans, historians estimate.

It’s not easy to compare flu seasons through history, partly because the nation’s population is changing. There are more Americans — and more elderly Americans — today than in decades past, noted Dr. Daniel Jernigan, a CDC flu expert.

U.S. health officials on Thursday are scheduled to hold a media event in Washington, D.C., to stress the importance of vaccinations to protect against whatever flu circulates this coming winter.

And how bad is it going to be? So far, the flu that’s been detected is a milder strain, and early signs are that the vaccine is shaping up to be a good match, Jernigan said.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we’re seeing more encouraging signs than we were early last year,” he said.

— Mike Stobbe

 

Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,960
Registered: ‎05-21-2010

Thank you Cherry. for the information from CDC. I get a flu shot every year. last year my husband and i got the flu shot in eary Novmeber. In January we both came down with the flu. Got to the Urgent Care clinic, the flu test was positive so we were given Tamiflu. It helped somewhat but let me tell you if you have never had the flu it is nothing to play around with.  If you come down with sudden high fever, chills, head and body aches and generally feeling like you can't stand up seek medical help ASAP. Last years shot was not a good match but this year's is supposes to be a better match.  I have taken a flue shot for as long as i can remember. Never had an adverse reaction.