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CNN Live Today

Interview With Joe Gigante

Aired December 12, 2003 - 11:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: At least 20 children have died from the flu this season. If your child is feverish, coughing and sneezing, how do you know whether it's a flu or just a cold? How do you tell, especially with infants and toddlers?
Dr. Joe Gigante is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt Medical Center. He's joining us from Nashville this morning. Doctor, good morning to you. Glad to have you with us.

Still so very many questions out there about this. If you were to give us a bottom line right now about people's children, and how grave the situation may be, if you will, what would it be?

DR. JOE GIGANTE, VANDERBILT MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, Heidi, I think the first thing I would like to tell parents is to not panic. Most children, most adults who get the flu will actually do well and should have a full recovery.

Those children who we're concerned about are the children less than two years of age, and children -- any child who has any type of chronic medical condition such as asthma, congenital heart disease or diabetes.

COLLINS: And, Doctor, I think it would be interesting if we could quickly pull up a graphic. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. We're trying to figure out the difference between recognizing the flu and recognizing a cold, specifically in children. And there are some bipolar differences, right, when we're talking about fever and chills and ache. Can we talk about that for a minute?

GIGANTE: Absolutely, Heidi. I think the key things to be aware of when you're discussing flu versus cold is that kind of runny nose, cough are typical symptoms that you will see with both cold and flu.

On the other hand, typically when children have flu they'll have more in the way of fever, they'll have headache. They may have some shaking chills. They'll have muscle aches and pains. So you typically feel a whole lot worse when you have the flu as opposed to the cold. Those are key things for parents to look out for to differentiate between the two diseases.

COLLINS: Yes, I think it kind of really breaks it down well there. Flu, high fever, cold, low fever. Flu, chills, cold, no chills. And flu, muscle aches. cold, no muscle aches. So those are the ones as a mom of a 2-year-old, that's what I'm going to be looking for I think.

GIGANTE: That's absolutely right.

COLLINS: Let's talk about the shortage of the vaccine for a moment, if we could. We learned that there are more vaccines being put out there by the CDC. Everything OK, in your opinion with that? Are we going to have enough?

GIGANTE: I hope so. And I think more with the flu season starting earlier this year than it has in the past, and it sounds like the flu is a more virulent form of the flu, more kids are getting sicker, being hospitalized. We've had deaths reported that have been around the country, I think more and more parents are wanting to get out there and their kids vaccinated. Hopefully there will be enough of the supplies so that everyone who wants to flu vaccine will be able to get it.

COLLINS: All right, let's go back to basics now if we could once again. I just want to make sure we're clear on this today, because we've heard so much about it in the media.

We're getting some e-mails in, quite a few, as you might imagine. The first one says, "From what I understand, approximately 35,000 people die from the flu each year. Is there really any more reason to worry this year than any other year?"

GIGANTE: I don't think so. I think what's happening is just because the flu has hit earlier we're hearing more about the more severe cases earlier on. At least at this point, I think it's too early to tell whether or not there'll be more deaths due to the flu this year. Obviously time will let us know, and time will tell whether or not there will be more deaths reported. But that average is pretty stable over the years.

COLLINS: All right. Now, you are a pediatrician. We have a question about an 8-month-old. This person has an 8-month-old daughter. She says, "I was told that babies under one-year-old cannot get any major viruses because they still have the mother's immune system. I then heard that the children from six months and up should get the flu vaccine. My doctor's office ran out. Should I be concerned about my daughter catching the flu? What do we do and what ages are at risk for children?"

GIGANTE: Any age child is actually at risk. Interestingly, we hospitalized a child just this week who is seven-days-old who was positive for the flu. So any child is at risk for developing the flu.

As I mentioned earlier, if your child is less than two years of age, or if your child has some type of chronic medical condition, I would definitely go to your doctor's office or health care provider's office and try to get your child vaccinated.

COLLINS: You know, we are looking at some pictures that came in to us a little bit earlier this morning. About 5,000 people or so we're told were in line. They were talking about it kind of like a rock concert, trying to get tickets for a rock concert, actually lining up for flu shots.

Does this give you sort of an indication of what the media has done in order to put this out there? Or have we overblown it a bit?

GIGANTE: I think -- you know, we need to get the information out there. And as a pediatrician, we always encourage folks to get vaccines.

I think at the same time, to balance things out, hearing about these really severe cases has caused a little bit of panic in the general population. We're seeing our offices here and our emergency rooms just packed with patients who have flu-like symptoms.

I think the key thing to know, if you're an otherwise healthy person, you can treat the flu at home. The keys to treatment at home are taking some type of medication for fever and pain control, either acetaminophen or ibuprofen, getting plenty of rest or and getting plenty of liquids so you don't get dehydrated.

And usually within about a week or so you should be feeling better.

COLLINS: OK. There are other people who are not, as you say, healthy all the time. This particular person wrote an e-mail talking about her son who has asthma. And says, "We still haven't been able to get him a flu shot. Tried all the health departments and the doctor. What should we do now?"

GIGANTE: You know, I think keep looking. That child sounds like a child who is eligible and should get the vaccine. I think even if there's a limited supply, that child should jump to the top of the list as far as being eligible to get the vaccine.

So if there are other physicians' offices or other local health departments that are not within her immediate area, that might be another place to look.

COLLINS: OK. Very good.

Now, "Besides washing her hands frequently, disinfecting her classroom desks and door knobs, how can my mother, who is obviously an elementary schoolteacher, at least some kind of teacher, and surrounded by kids all day prevent getting the flu when she had an allergic reaction to last year's flu shot? Can she still get the FluMist as an alternative?"

GIGANTE: The FluMist is out there. It's a nasal flu vaccine. It's a live vaccine. It's a live virus as opposed to a killed or in activated virus in the shot, the flu shot.

The thing with the FluMist is there are limitations with regard to who can get the FluMist. It's actually age ranges between 5 to 49 years of age, and otherwise healthy individuals. So if you fall into that category, you're eligible to get the FluMist.

As you mentioned earlier, though it costs more than a flu shot. Around $60 versus $10 for the flu shot. But that's another alternative for those folks who fall into that category.

I think it would be something to discuss with their doctor to see if they're eligible and if they should receive it.

COLLINS: A little bit of good news on that, too, a couple of insurance companies saying that they will cover the cost of FluMist. So that is good news.

Dr. Joe Gigante, thank you so much. We're trying our best to keep this accurate and cover it as best we can here on CNN.

GIGANTE: Well, thank you, Heidi. And I said hopefully this will pass, and it will be our average flu season just happening earlier rather than later.

COLLINS: Boy, I sure hope so.

GIGANTE: Yes.

COLLINS: All right, Doctor, thanks again. Appreciate your time today.

GIGANTE: Have a good day, bye-bye.

COLLINS: All right, you too.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 12, 2003 - 11:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: At least 20 children have died from the flu this season. If your child is feverish, coughing and sneezing, how do you know whether it's a flu or just a cold? How do you tell, especially with infants and toddlers?
Dr. Joe Gigante is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt Medical Center. He's joining us from Nashville this morning. Doctor, good morning to you. Glad to have you with us.

Still so very many questions out there about this. If you were to give us a bottom line right now about people's children, and how grave the situation may be, if you will, what would it be?

DR. JOE GIGANTE, VANDERBILT MEDICAL CENTER: Yes, Heidi, I think the first thing I would like to tell parents is to not panic. Most children, most adults who get the flu will actually do well and should have a full recovery.

Those children who we're concerned about are the children less than two years of age, and children -- any child who has any type of chronic medical condition such as asthma, congenital heart disease or diabetes.

COLLINS: And, Doctor, I think it would be interesting if we could quickly pull up a graphic. We talked about this a little bit yesterday. We're trying to figure out the difference between recognizing the flu and recognizing a cold, specifically in children. And there are some bipolar differences, right, when we're talking about fever and chills and ache. Can we talk about that for a minute?

GIGANTE: Absolutely, Heidi. I think the key things to be aware of when you're discussing flu versus cold is that kind of runny nose, cough are typical symptoms that you will see with both cold and flu.

On the other hand, typically when children have flu they'll have more in the way of fever, they'll have headache. They may have some shaking chills. They'll have muscle aches and pains. So you typically feel a whole lot worse when you have the flu as opposed to the cold. Those are key things for parents to look out for to differentiate between the two diseases.

COLLINS: Yes, I think it kind of really breaks it down well there. Flu, high fever, cold, low fever. Flu, chills, cold, no chills. And flu, muscle aches. cold, no muscle aches. So those are the ones as a mom of a 2-year-old, that's what I'm going to be looking for I think.

GIGANTE: That's absolutely right.

COLLINS: Let's talk about the shortage of the vaccine for a moment, if we could. We learned that there are more vaccines being put out there by the CDC. Everything OK, in your opinion with that? Are we going to have enough?

GIGANTE: I hope so. And I think more with the flu season starting earlier this year than it has in the past, and it sounds like the flu is a more virulent form of the flu, more kids are getting sicker, being hospitalized. We've had deaths reported that have been around the country, I think more and more parents are wanting to get out there and their kids vaccinated. Hopefully there will be enough of the supplies so that everyone who wants to flu vaccine will be able to get it.

COLLINS: All right, let's go back to basics now if we could once again. I just want to make sure we're clear on this today, because we've heard so much about it in the media.

We're getting some e-mails in, quite a few, as you might imagine. The first one says, "From what I understand, approximately 35,000 people die from the flu each year. Is there really any more reason to worry this year than any other year?"

GIGANTE: I don't think so. I think what's happening is just because the flu has hit earlier we're hearing more about the more severe cases earlier on. At least at this point, I think it's too early to tell whether or not there'll be more deaths due to the flu this year. Obviously time will let us know, and time will tell whether or not there will be more deaths reported. But that average is pretty stable over the years.

COLLINS: All right. Now, you are a pediatrician. We have a question about an 8-month-old. This person has an 8-month-old daughter. She says, "I was told that babies under one-year-old cannot get any major viruses because they still have the mother's immune system. I then heard that the children from six months and up should get the flu vaccine. My doctor's office ran out. Should I be concerned about my daughter catching the flu? What do we do and what ages are at risk for children?"

GIGANTE: Any age child is actually at risk. Interestingly, we hospitalized a child just this week who is seven-days-old who was positive for the flu. So any child is at risk for developing the flu.

As I mentioned earlier, if your child is less than two years of age, or if your child has some type of chronic medical condition, I would definitely go to your doctor's office or health care provider's office and try to get your child vaccinated.

COLLINS: You know, we are looking at some pictures that came in to us a little bit earlier this morning. About 5,000 people or so we're told were in line. They were talking about it kind of like a rock concert, trying to get tickets for a rock concert, actually lining up for flu shots.

Does this give you sort of an indication of what the media has done in order to put this out there? Or have we overblown it a bit?

GIGANTE: I think -- you know, we need to get the information out there. And as a pediatrician, we always encourage folks to get vaccines.

I think at the same time, to balance things out, hearing about these really severe cases has caused a little bit of panic in the general population. We're seeing our offices here and our emergency rooms just packed with patients who have flu-like symptoms.

I think the key thing to know, if you're an otherwise healthy person, you can treat the flu at home. The keys to treatment at home are taking some type of medication for fever and pain control, either acetaminophen or ibuprofen, getting plenty of rest or and getting plenty of liquids so you don't get dehydrated.

And usually within about a week or so you should be feeling better.

COLLINS: OK. There are other people who are not, as you say, healthy all the time. This particular person wrote an e-mail talking about her son who has asthma. And says, "We still haven't been able to get him a flu shot. Tried all the health departments and the doctor. What should we do now?"

GIGANTE: You know, I think keep looking. That child sounds like a child who is eligible and should get the vaccine. I think even if there's a limited supply, that child should jump to the top of the list as far as being eligible to get the vaccine.

So if there are other physicians' offices or other local health departments that are not within her immediate area, that might be another place to look.

COLLINS: OK. Very good.

Now, "Besides washing her hands frequently, disinfecting her classroom desks and door knobs, how can my mother, who is obviously an elementary schoolteacher, at least some kind of teacher, and surrounded by kids all day prevent getting the flu when she had an allergic reaction to last year's flu shot? Can she still get the FluMist as an alternative?"

GIGANTE: The FluMist is out there. It's a nasal flu vaccine. It's a live vaccine. It's a live virus as opposed to a killed or in activated virus in the shot, the flu shot.

The thing with the FluMist is there are limitations with regard to who can get the FluMist. It's actually age ranges between 5 to 49 years of age, and otherwise healthy individuals. So if you fall into that category, you're eligible to get the FluMist.

As you mentioned earlier, though it costs more than a flu shot. Around $60 versus $10 for the flu shot. But that's another alternative for those folks who fall into that category.

I think it would be something to discuss with their doctor to see if they're eligible and if they should receive it.

COLLINS: A little bit of good news on that, too, a couple of insurance companies saying that they will cover the cost of FluMist. So that is good news.

Dr. Joe Gigante, thank you so much. We're trying our best to keep this accurate and cover it as best we can here on CNN.

GIGANTE: Well, thank you, Heidi. And I said hopefully this will pass, and it will be our average flu season just happening earlier rather than later.

COLLINS: Boy, I sure hope so.

GIGANTE: Yes.

COLLINS: All right, Doctor, thanks again. Appreciate your time today.

GIGANTE: Have a good day, bye-bye.

COLLINS: All right, you too.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com