Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 1, 1993 TAG: 9310010190
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"This year's flu, the Beijing strain, is expected to hit very hard," Donna Shalala, the secretary of Health and Human Services, said at a news conference in Washington. She said 10,000 to 45,000 Americans lose their lives to influenza every year, mostly older people whose lives could have been saved by flu shots.
Normally, the government recommends that people get flu shots between mid-October and mid-November. "But this year we're encouraging people to get their shots right away, and this means before the end of October," Shalala said. For the first time, Medicare will pay for flu shots for people 65 and older.
This year the influenza virus has once again changed to a form against which most people have no protection. And since the change occurred in the so-called type A strain, the kind associated with the most severe complications, this promises to be a relatively bad flu season.
The new virus variant, known as Type A Beijing 3292, first appeared in the United States at the end of the last flu season, giving manufacturers an opportunity to include it in this year's vaccine. Only those who contracted the Beijing flu last spring are likely to be immune to it.
The 1993 vaccine also protects against the milder Panama Type B influenza and the older Texas Type A virus that are expected to be around this flu season.
Flu shots are recommended for people 65 and older, people who live in nursing homes or other chronic-care institutions, and anyone with a chronic disease involving the heart, kidneys or lungs, or a condition that impairs the body's immune responses.
Typically, only 30 percent of those over 65 get flu shots. Health officials say they hope that coverage by Medicare will double this percentage and result in fewer deaths.
by CNB