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American Morning
House Call: Inhaled Flu Vaccine
Aired December 18, 2002 - 07:51 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It's flu season, we know that. And if you do not like the needle for the flu shot, there is another choice, a flu vaccine you can actually inhale.
Our "House Call" this morning, first up -- first stop, rather, Dr. Sanjay Gupta from the CNN Center.
Good morning -- Sanjay. What do you have?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Yes, this is sort of an update. We talked a little bit about this flu vaccine yesterday. That is the painless kind, a spray up the nose as opposed to a shot.
It had been previously put before the FDA over a year ago, and they said you know what? We don't think it's quite safe enough. Well, that changed yesterday. And now, the FDA advisory committee actually said this flu vaccine through the nose, not a shot, is actually approved by them for age 5 to 49. The FDA still has to approve it for the general public, but this certainly is a good step in the right direction, and a good step for people who want to get the painless variety of flu shots, maybe yourself included there, Bill.
One other story I want to tell you about as well has to do with blood pressure medications. Blood pressure is a huge problem in this country, 1 in 4 people have it, 50 million people have it, 24 million people take medications. Incidentally, it costs about $15.5 billion.
Well, one of the old-fashioned medications, if you will, a water pill, a diuretic, has been found by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to actually be as, if not more, effective as some of the newer, more fangled blood pressure medications. They actually went ahead and measured the response of diuretic vs. three other new medications, and found the diuretic was just as good, if not better.
Their conclusion: If you are newly diagnosed with hypertension, a diuretic may be a good choice for you as a first line of medication and also probably a lot cheaper -- Bill.
HEMMER: Good to know. Thank you, Sanjay. See you in about 30 minutes, too, to talk about Lasik surgery, right, for the eye?
GUPTA: Yes, exactly.
HEMMER: It's getting better apparently.
GUPTA: Some (UNINTELLIGIBLE) technology, that's right. HEMMER: OK.
GUPTA: But we'll talk all about that.
HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. See you then, about 35 minutes away.
GUPTA: OK.
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 18, 2002 - 07:51 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: It's flu season, we know that. And if you do not like the needle for the flu shot, there is another choice, a flu vaccine you can actually inhale.
Our "House Call" this morning, first up -- first stop, rather, Dr. Sanjay Gupta from the CNN Center.
Good morning -- Sanjay. What do you have?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill. Yes, this is sort of an update. We talked a little bit about this flu vaccine yesterday. That is the painless kind, a spray up the nose as opposed to a shot.
It had been previously put before the FDA over a year ago, and they said you know what? We don't think it's quite safe enough. Well, that changed yesterday. And now, the FDA advisory committee actually said this flu vaccine through the nose, not a shot, is actually approved by them for age 5 to 49. The FDA still has to approve it for the general public, but this certainly is a good step in the right direction, and a good step for people who want to get the painless variety of flu shots, maybe yourself included there, Bill.
One other story I want to tell you about as well has to do with blood pressure medications. Blood pressure is a huge problem in this country, 1 in 4 people have it, 50 million people have it, 24 million people take medications. Incidentally, it costs about $15.5 billion.
Well, one of the old-fashioned medications, if you will, a water pill, a diuretic, has been found by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to actually be as, if not more, effective as some of the newer, more fangled blood pressure medications. They actually went ahead and measured the response of diuretic vs. three other new medications, and found the diuretic was just as good, if not better.
Their conclusion: If you are newly diagnosed with hypertension, a diuretic may be a good choice for you as a first line of medication and also probably a lot cheaper -- Bill.
HEMMER: Good to know. Thank you, Sanjay. See you in about 30 minutes, too, to talk about Lasik surgery, right, for the eye?
GUPTA: Yes, exactly.
HEMMER: It's getting better apparently.
GUPTA: Some (UNINTELLIGIBLE) technology, that's right. HEMMER: OK.
GUPTA: But we'll talk all about that.
HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. See you then, about 35 minutes away.
GUPTA: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
