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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Tracking the Flu

Aired December 22, 2003 - 08:44   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: Officials in some of the states that have already been hard-hit by the flu are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that the disease may have peaked. But elsewhere, the risk of getting the flu is still very real.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with the latest on the flu this morning.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

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

There's some bad news, obviously, good news, as well, and some important news for those at home.

Bad news as you mentioned, Soledad, the flu is now widespread in 36 states. You can take a look at the map. All around the country, we've been talking about these numbers. The flu has certainly hit most of the states around the country. That's the bad news.

The good news is that there appears to be a leveling off of the number of cases. Certainly at the beginning of all this, Soledad, you and I talked a lot about Colorado and Texas being two of the first states that were hit significantly. Both those states now reporting a significant leveling off.

Everyone asks about children. About 42 children have died. Some require that states actually report the number of flu deaths, so that is a guesstimate by the CDC. Twenty one of those children incidentally, Soledad, were previously healthy as well. People ask about that.

Question being then, well, how do you know when you should go to the doctor? That's important news for folks at home. How do you know when it's time to seek medical attention? Important questions certainly if you have the flu, and again, we've talked about that. A sudden onset of illness, high fever, muscle aches, and you fall into one of the high risk groups, 65 years and older, children under 2 years old, pregnant women, people with underlying illness, perhaps it's time to seek medical attention.

Soledad, but it's important to reinforce that the vast majority of people are going to do just fine at home. They're going to have a few miserable days, but they're going to do fine. And if you do just stay at home, there are obvious tips for people at home as well, things that you can do to try and ward off some of the significant symptoms, get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids, avoid alcohol and tobacco, take over-the-counter cold and flu medications. Important caveat, as well, do not give Aspirin to children and teenagers; that can cause some significant side effects. Again, Soledad, about 10 percent to 20 percent of the nation is going to get the flu. Most of them are going to be just fine, and most of them are going to be just fine at home -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, a couple quick questions for you. You mentioned that people are not required to report to the CDC a flu death. Why is that?

GUPTA: Well, there's a couple of reasons. First of all, there are so many -- the numbers are really extraordinarily high, and I think it's important to point out that about 36,000 people or so, probably higher than that number, will die this year. So when you get numbers like that, it's typically not required by various hospital agencies, state agencies to actually report all those.

Secondarily, also, it's sometimes difficult to tell if someone has actually died from the flu. What happens typically is that you get the flu, and then you get a subsequent bacterial pneumonia or other infection on top of that, that is actually the cause of death. So did the flu actually cause the death, or was it something else? Sometimes that can be difficult to discern. So as a result, those deaths are not always reported -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: At what point in the flu season, Sanjay, do we know, we sort of made it through? When does flu season end?

GUPTA: That's a good question. And that season typically can change a bit. Typically, if you look at historical data, January is when the flu season sort of peaks. So you can actually draw a curve, it goes up in January, peaks and then starts to come down the rest of the year. This year everything is sort of scaled back a little bit. So it could mean that we've already peaked in December now, and the numbers will start to level off, and the flu season could actually end a little bit earlier, earlier spring than in past years -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess that would be the silver lining in all of this, a lot of bad news there. Sanjay Gupta, thanks. As always, Sanjay, 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 22, 2003 - 08:44   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Officials in some of the states that have already been hard-hit by the flu are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that the disease may have peaked. But elsewhere, the risk of getting the flu is still very real.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us with the latest on the flu this morning.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

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

There's some bad news, obviously, good news, as well, and some important news for those at home.

Bad news as you mentioned, Soledad, the flu is now widespread in 36 states. You can take a look at the map. All around the country, we've been talking about these numbers. The flu has certainly hit most of the states around the country. That's the bad news.

The good news is that there appears to be a leveling off of the number of cases. Certainly at the beginning of all this, Soledad, you and I talked a lot about Colorado and Texas being two of the first states that were hit significantly. Both those states now reporting a significant leveling off.

Everyone asks about children. About 42 children have died. Some require that states actually report the number of flu deaths, so that is a guesstimate by the CDC. Twenty one of those children incidentally, Soledad, were previously healthy as well. People ask about that.

Question being then, well, how do you know when you should go to the doctor? That's important news for folks at home. How do you know when it's time to seek medical attention? Important questions certainly if you have the flu, and again, we've talked about that. A sudden onset of illness, high fever, muscle aches, and you fall into one of the high risk groups, 65 years and older, children under 2 years old, pregnant women, people with underlying illness, perhaps it's time to seek medical attention.

Soledad, but it's important to reinforce that the vast majority of people are going to do just fine at home. They're going to have a few miserable days, but they're going to do fine. And if you do just stay at home, there are obvious tips for people at home as well, things that you can do to try and ward off some of the significant symptoms, get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids, avoid alcohol and tobacco, take over-the-counter cold and flu medications. Important caveat, as well, do not give Aspirin to children and teenagers; that can cause some significant side effects. Again, Soledad, about 10 percent to 20 percent of the nation is going to get the flu. Most of them are going to be just fine, and most of them are going to be just fine at home -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay, a couple quick questions for you. You mentioned that people are not required to report to the CDC a flu death. Why is that?

GUPTA: Well, there's a couple of reasons. First of all, there are so many -- the numbers are really extraordinarily high, and I think it's important to point out that about 36,000 people or so, probably higher than that number, will die this year. So when you get numbers like that, it's typically not required by various hospital agencies, state agencies to actually report all those.

Secondarily, also, it's sometimes difficult to tell if someone has actually died from the flu. What happens typically is that you get the flu, and then you get a subsequent bacterial pneumonia or other infection on top of that, that is actually the cause of death. So did the flu actually cause the death, or was it something else? Sometimes that can be difficult to discern. So as a result, those deaths are not always reported -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: At what point in the flu season, Sanjay, do we know, we sort of made it through? When does flu season end?

GUPTA: That's a good question. And that season typically can change a bit. Typically, if you look at historical data, January is when the flu season sort of peaks. So you can actually draw a curve, it goes up in January, peaks and then starts to come down the rest of the year. This year everything is sort of scaled back a little bit. So it could mean that we've already peaked in December now, and the numbers will start to level off, and the flu season could actually end a little bit earlier, earlier spring than in past years -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess that would be the silver lining in all of this, a lot of bad news there. Sanjay Gupta, thanks. As always, Sanjay, 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