Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Flu Fears

Aired December 11, 2003 - 09:32   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.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We got some tips earlier this morning about avoiding the flu at work from our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's back now to answer some of your e-mailed questions.
Thanks for joining us again.

First one comes from Stephanie. She says we talked a little bit about diagnosing the flu. How is it diagnosed? And also, how is that distinguished then from a cold or any other ailment?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, big deal, because the flu is going to be very different than the cold. You're going to talk a little bit about the fact that the flu oftentimes comes on suddenly, versus a cold which oftentimes times takes some time. You still got a little bit of a mild cough; oftentimes the flu it's going to be a much more severe cough.

Take a look at a list of all the different sorts of symptoms. Fever, for example, you're going to have a lot of -- fever is going to be much more severe with the flu versus a cold. Cough, again, I mentioned much more severe with the flu versus a cold, but you're going to last a lot longer having a cough than with a cold versus the flu.

The big thing, though, if your symptoms suddenly come on very suddenly, it's much more likely to be the flu versus a cold.

O'BRIEN: Quick question for you, why do they need six to eight months to get the vaccine up and running? They talk about if they miss that window where the vaccine isn't growing well in some kind of an egg, I guess, solution that they grow them in, they sort of miss the window for the flu season the following year. Why is that?

GUPTA: The manufacturing process does take awhile. You're generating 80 million doses typically of flu vaccine you're going to distribute around the country. So that whole process actually takes awhile, making it and getting it to the places that need it. As we've seen this year, it doesn't always work as well as we hope, because while the production part of this is probably OK, the distribution has been a little bit of a problem. Not all the places that need it the most have gotten the flu vaccine, but that's typically why it takes awhile.

But it is -- you bring up a good point, because it is a little bit of guesswork. You're trying to guess six to eight months in advance why exactly -- what exactly those strains are going to be for the following year.

O'BRIEN: Why do they not vaccinate the littlest? Six months and younger, they say, cannot get a vaccination. You see a newborn with a cold, it's so hard for them to breathe, you imagine if they get the flu, those are the ones who are going to die.

GUPTA: That's right. It's interesting because most people ask the reverse question, why do they vaccinate so young at six months? In fact, 6 to 23 months are some of the highest risk, five times more likely to be hospitalized, five times more likely to develop long-term problems with lung, asthma-time problems, things like that. Six months and younger your immune system is not developed enough probably yet to tolerate the flu shot. You may actually, in those cases, be a little bit more problematic than if you got the flu shot at about the age of six months. That's the simple reason. There's no magic number to that, but six months is sort of what most doctors will recommend.

O'BRIEN: A viewer writes in, what about the flu being transmitted via door knobs, subway hand bars, et cetera? Wearing gloves while outdoors, using hand disinfectant inside, also via shaking hands? This is a guy or woman who's afraid to touch anybody? But it's a good question, because if you ride the subway, as I do, you see people hacking, hacking, and then they hang onto the subway strap, and you think, yuck.

GUPTA: That's a little disgusting.

But the neuroses about shaking hands is something that people do develop this time of year, because it can be a problem. A couple things to keep in mind. I don't think you need not shake people's hands anymore. But you do need to wash your hands more frequently.

But even more than that, let me take that one step further and say, after you shake somebody's hands or after you touch something that you think might be contaminated, such as that subway handle, don't touch your mouth, nose or eyes. That's how you're really taking that flu virus, or whatever virus, and actually transmitting it to yourself is from two steps, shaking or touching something, and then touching mouth, nose or eyes. That's typically what happens.

O'BRIEN: Does the Purell stuff, or those hand sanitizers work as well as if you just went to the bathroom and used hot soap and water?

GUPTA: Yes, they work very well. The difference is they're alcohol based, so they're probably going to dry out your hands a little bit more. But you know what, people use those a lot more, because you put them right on your desk and just squirt some in and wash your hands. You do that pretty frequently throughout the day. Using those keyboards, as we mentioned earlier, also very dirty, those keyboards can harbor virus for up to 72 hours.

O'BRIEN: Quick question from Jody, five seconds to answer -- Zycam, zinc lozenges -- those are used in colds. She wants to know if they have any effect on the flu?

GUPTA: They appear to reduce the duration of some of the flu- like symptoms. There was a study out of the Cleveland clinic, saying it may reduce it by half. Hard to stand by whether or not you should go out and buy those, but it may help in some cases.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, excellent advice. Thank you. I want to just go wash my hands right now and all day. Appreciate it.

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 11, 2003 - 09:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We got some tips earlier this morning about avoiding the flu at work from our medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He's back now to answer some of your e-mailed questions.
Thanks for joining us again.

First one comes from Stephanie. She says we talked a little bit about diagnosing the flu. How is it diagnosed? And also, how is that distinguished then from a cold or any other ailment?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, big deal, because the flu is going to be very different than the cold. You're going to talk a little bit about the fact that the flu oftentimes comes on suddenly, versus a cold which oftentimes times takes some time. You still got a little bit of a mild cough; oftentimes the flu it's going to be a much more severe cough.

Take a look at a list of all the different sorts of symptoms. Fever, for example, you're going to have a lot of -- fever is going to be much more severe with the flu versus a cold. Cough, again, I mentioned much more severe with the flu versus a cold, but you're going to last a lot longer having a cough than with a cold versus the flu.

The big thing, though, if your symptoms suddenly come on very suddenly, it's much more likely to be the flu versus a cold.

O'BRIEN: Quick question for you, why do they need six to eight months to get the vaccine up and running? They talk about if they miss that window where the vaccine isn't growing well in some kind of an egg, I guess, solution that they grow them in, they sort of miss the window for the flu season the following year. Why is that?

GUPTA: The manufacturing process does take awhile. You're generating 80 million doses typically of flu vaccine you're going to distribute around the country. So that whole process actually takes awhile, making it and getting it to the places that need it. As we've seen this year, it doesn't always work as well as we hope, because while the production part of this is probably OK, the distribution has been a little bit of a problem. Not all the places that need it the most have gotten the flu vaccine, but that's typically why it takes awhile.

But it is -- you bring up a good point, because it is a little bit of guesswork. You're trying to guess six to eight months in advance why exactly -- what exactly those strains are going to be for the following year.

O'BRIEN: Why do they not vaccinate the littlest? Six months and younger, they say, cannot get a vaccination. You see a newborn with a cold, it's so hard for them to breathe, you imagine if they get the flu, those are the ones who are going to die.

GUPTA: That's right. It's interesting because most people ask the reverse question, why do they vaccinate so young at six months? In fact, 6 to 23 months are some of the highest risk, five times more likely to be hospitalized, five times more likely to develop long-term problems with lung, asthma-time problems, things like that. Six months and younger your immune system is not developed enough probably yet to tolerate the flu shot. You may actually, in those cases, be a little bit more problematic than if you got the flu shot at about the age of six months. That's the simple reason. There's no magic number to that, but six months is sort of what most doctors will recommend.

O'BRIEN: A viewer writes in, what about the flu being transmitted via door knobs, subway hand bars, et cetera? Wearing gloves while outdoors, using hand disinfectant inside, also via shaking hands? This is a guy or woman who's afraid to touch anybody? But it's a good question, because if you ride the subway, as I do, you see people hacking, hacking, and then they hang onto the subway strap, and you think, yuck.

GUPTA: That's a little disgusting.

But the neuroses about shaking hands is something that people do develop this time of year, because it can be a problem. A couple things to keep in mind. I don't think you need not shake people's hands anymore. But you do need to wash your hands more frequently.

But even more than that, let me take that one step further and say, after you shake somebody's hands or after you touch something that you think might be contaminated, such as that subway handle, don't touch your mouth, nose or eyes. That's how you're really taking that flu virus, or whatever virus, and actually transmitting it to yourself is from two steps, shaking or touching something, and then touching mouth, nose or eyes. That's typically what happens.

O'BRIEN: Does the Purell stuff, or those hand sanitizers work as well as if you just went to the bathroom and used hot soap and water?

GUPTA: Yes, they work very well. The difference is they're alcohol based, so they're probably going to dry out your hands a little bit more. But you know what, people use those a lot more, because you put them right on your desk and just squirt some in and wash your hands. You do that pretty frequently throughout the day. Using those keyboards, as we mentioned earlier, also very dirty, those keyboards can harbor virus for up to 72 hours.

O'BRIEN: Quick question from Jody, five seconds to answer -- Zycam, zinc lozenges -- those are used in colds. She wants to know if they have any effect on the flu?

GUPTA: They appear to reduce the duration of some of the flu- like symptoms. There was a study out of the Cleveland clinic, saying it may reduce it by half. Hard to stand by whether or not you should go out and buy those, but it may help in some cases.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, excellent advice. Thank you. I want to just go wash my hands right now and all day. Appreciate it.

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