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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Fighting the Flu

Aired December 03, 2003 - 08:46   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.


ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical officials across the country are watching for large outbreaks of influenza. The early onset of the flu season, a new strain of the virus, and concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine to fight it are complicating matters this year.
Joining us now with the latest from the CNN Center, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.

Yes, we're talking about an earlier and much harder flu season so far. Ten states in particular have been the hardest hit. Take a look at the states here. We've been reporting on this now for a couple of weeks. We're talking about Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, you can read the entire list there, last week, for example, Colorado we reported close to 4,700 confirmed cases of the flu, and four deaths. Those numbers are already rising to five deaths. A sixth one is being investigated.

The word "pandemic" gets thrown around here, Anderson. I want to just clear up a couple things. When you talk about a pandemic, several things sort of have to happen, a confluence of events, if you will. We're talking with a drift strain that has to occur. That's like a flu virus that already exists, but it's shifted in some ways, so it's a little bit different than any of the existing viruses out there. That has happened. Also, the population is not immune to this thing and that the actual virus can spread quickly from person to person. Sometimes, with a situation of a pandemic, the viruses can actually jump from a species of animals for example to a species of humans. That has not happened here. There are some of the criteria for a pandemic. But no one that we've spoken to is ready to use that word yet to describe what is happening now -- Anderson.

COOPER: Let's talk about what's going on in New Mexico. Could this be a cautionary tale? What happened there, could it be a cautionary tale for what other states might soon see?

GUPTA: Yes, I think It's sort of interesting in New Mexico, and we did talk to some of the health officials there yesterday, as well. About 200 confirmed cases in New Mexico, pretty quickly. What was most concerning though, was the concern about three pediatric deaths. Now regarding those deaths. No one is ready to say yet that those deaths were certainly related to the flu. One seemed more likely than the others. But they're going to have to do an autopsy to actually confirm that those deaths were, in fact, the flu. But I think the fact again, New Mexico like the rest of the country, the fact that the flu has hit so hard and so early has been of concern out there, as well.

COOPER: And in New Mexico as elsewhere, what role could the vaccine be playing? Because as we've heard, as we talked about yesterday on this program, this vaccine not specifically designed for this particular fujien strain of flu.

GUPTA: What happens here, to give you a little bit inside baseball, the vaccine is designed basically to try and target the most likely strains of flu virus this particular year. This particular year, the fujien strain was not one of the viruses that was targeted by the vaccine, and that's what everyone is talking about. This fujien strain is showing up quite a bit around the country. What we've heard, though, is in fact the people who get the vaccine are not completely not protected, meaning they still do get some protection from the vaccine, even though it's not directly targeting the fujien strain.

So, that's the best advice still is to get the shot, because you're probably going to get some protection from it. People most at risk as we've talked about before, Anderson, you and I, 50 plus years old, have heart, lung, kidney problems, if you have low immunity, and then a child as well between the age of 6 and 23 months. Those are the children that are the most likely to be affected by this -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, go get those flu shots.

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 3, 2003 - 08:46   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Medical officials across the country are watching for large outbreaks of influenza. The early onset of the flu season, a new strain of the virus, and concerns about the effectiveness of the vaccine to fight it are complicating matters this year.
Joining us now with the latest from the CNN Center, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Good morning, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Anderson.

Yes, we're talking about an earlier and much harder flu season so far. Ten states in particular have been the hardest hit. Take a look at the states here. We've been reporting on this now for a couple of weeks. We're talking about Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, you can read the entire list there, last week, for example, Colorado we reported close to 4,700 confirmed cases of the flu, and four deaths. Those numbers are already rising to five deaths. A sixth one is being investigated.

The word "pandemic" gets thrown around here, Anderson. I want to just clear up a couple things. When you talk about a pandemic, several things sort of have to happen, a confluence of events, if you will. We're talking with a drift strain that has to occur. That's like a flu virus that already exists, but it's shifted in some ways, so it's a little bit different than any of the existing viruses out there. That has happened. Also, the population is not immune to this thing and that the actual virus can spread quickly from person to person. Sometimes, with a situation of a pandemic, the viruses can actually jump from a species of animals for example to a species of humans. That has not happened here. There are some of the criteria for a pandemic. But no one that we've spoken to is ready to use that word yet to describe what is happening now -- Anderson.

COOPER: Let's talk about what's going on in New Mexico. Could this be a cautionary tale? What happened there, could it be a cautionary tale for what other states might soon see?

GUPTA: Yes, I think It's sort of interesting in New Mexico, and we did talk to some of the health officials there yesterday, as well. About 200 confirmed cases in New Mexico, pretty quickly. What was most concerning though, was the concern about three pediatric deaths. Now regarding those deaths. No one is ready to say yet that those deaths were certainly related to the flu. One seemed more likely than the others. But they're going to have to do an autopsy to actually confirm that those deaths were, in fact, the flu. But I think the fact again, New Mexico like the rest of the country, the fact that the flu has hit so hard and so early has been of concern out there, as well.

COOPER: And in New Mexico as elsewhere, what role could the vaccine be playing? Because as we've heard, as we talked about yesterday on this program, this vaccine not specifically designed for this particular fujien strain of flu.

GUPTA: What happens here, to give you a little bit inside baseball, the vaccine is designed basically to try and target the most likely strains of flu virus this particular year. This particular year, the fujien strain was not one of the viruses that was targeted by the vaccine, and that's what everyone is talking about. This fujien strain is showing up quite a bit around the country. What we've heard, though, is in fact the people who get the vaccine are not completely not protected, meaning they still do get some protection from the vaccine, even though it's not directly targeting the fujien strain.

So, that's the best advice still is to get the shot, because you're probably going to get some protection from it. People most at risk as we've talked about before, Anderson, you and I, 50 plus years old, have heart, lung, kidney problems, if you have low immunity, and then a child as well between the age of 6 and 23 months. Those are the children that are the most likely to be affected by this -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, go get those flu shots.

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