Could there be a universal flu vaccine in the future?
There are many, many different "strains" of influenza floating around out there and, leading up to each year's flu season the CDC, basically, guesses which strains will be active and those strains go into that seasons flu shots.
In this article from Scientific American, Maryn McKenna discusses current attempts to create a universal vaccine that will protect from all strains of influenza, including bird flu and swine flu.
Here's a link to more info from the CDC on what you should know about the 2013-2014 flu season.
And a link to our post a week or so ago on flu precautions.
Stay well, my friends.
Late last year (2013), Indiana's POST (Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment) legislation went into effect.
POST is an attempt to broaden your choices beyond just a
simple DNR (do not resuscitate) request. Maybe you want EMS personnel
to perform CPR but not to intubate, etc.
POST, living wills and DNR issues can be a difficult and challenging subject for families and it's important to make your wishes known before you're unresponsive.
A POST directive, a living will and a DNR are all different things, so understand the differences between them and how they work to reflect
your wishes.
Here's a great site to understand what a POST is and how it can better reflect your own, individual choices.
And here's a link to Indiana's actual POST form so that you can see what those choices are. Note that a POST form must be signed by a physician.
The State strongly suggests that the POST form itself be kept with your medications or taped to your fridge. They also recommend that it be printed on pink paper so it really stands out.
Speaking as an emergency services provider myself, I encourage you to consider medic alert jewellery if you have POST or DNR directives. When you're unresponsive, we're moving pretty quickly and that's no time to wait for your friend to dig through your filing cabinet looking for a piece of paper you showed them a couple years ago...
Truly, if you have any life threatening medical condition, we encourage you to consider medic alert jewellery.
Tattooing yourself might be considered taking it to an extreme, but you can bet we're probably going to see that this fellow is a diabetic.
You might choose something a bit more subtle...but medic alert jewellery works. We really do see it and it helps us to help you.
150 years ago, when the saying first seems to have begun, it was "Eat an apple on going to bed, and you’ll keep the doctor from earning his bread"
Then "an apple a day, no doctor to pay".
Either way, even though that pithy little saying is pretty recent, it seems apples have been used as a part of medicine for over 1,500 years.
The American Heart Association has published an article showing that an apple a day is associated with a 9% lessened risk of stroke.
More recently, Oxford University has recently calculated that an apple a day would prevent about 8,500 deaths from heart attacks and strokes every year.
Considering the population of Great Britain, that translates into almost 40,000 fewer deaths per year in the United States!
Apples? Who knew?
Flu season is well underway in Indiana. Nationally, the CDC is watching this flu season very closely because the main strain is H1N1 (swine flu)...the same virus responsible for the flu pandemic in 2009.
Widespread flu activity was reported in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana,
Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri,
Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, North
Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South
Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. You can track the activity on the CDC "Influenza-Like Illness" tracker located on their website.
People with flu can spread it to others up to about 6 feet away. Most experts think that flu viruses are spread mainly by droplets made when people with flu cough, sneeze and talk.
From the CDC: To avoid this, people should stay away from sick people and stay home if
sick. It also is important to wash hands often with soap and water. If
soap and water are not available, use an alcohol-based hand rub. Linens,
eating utensils, and dishes belonging to those who are sick should not
be shared without washing thoroughly first. Eating utensils can be
washed either in a dishwasher or by hand with water and soap and do not
need to be cleaned separately.
If you didn't get a vaccine, anti-viral medications
can be of some help, but are often recommended only if (a) you're very
sick and (b) have some type of complicating underlying health condition
(asthma, heart disease, etc)
Maybe not.
In this short article from Scientific American, Mark Fischetti explains why it should be "feed a cold, feed a fever"
And remember, sick or well, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.
It's the elephant in the room.
When you or a loved one is sick or hurt, you're not thinking about money, you're thinking about getting well...and that's just as it should be.
Never the less, analyses over the last several years show that 62% of all personal bankruptcies in the United States are caused by ruinous medical bills. Not credit card binges, not mortgages, not flim flam investments... ....medical bills. And 4 out of 5 of those folks actually HAD health insurance.
I suspect we've all heard of the Blue Shield cases where they were paying bonuses to employees to cancel coverage on high dollar cases. You might even have heard that they were fined two million dollars for dropping over 1,000 insured with expensive claims, but that money went to Los Angeles City attorney's office. Earlier, they'd promised three million dollars to the insured...but three million dollars across a thousand expensive health claims didn't go very far to help the folks they'd fraudulently dropped.
So yes, please keep your focus on getting well...but do what you can to keep yourself from being financially ruined in the process. Fight for more and better insurance coverage. Find out if your doctor has financial stake in how you're treated.
Ask questions, do your own research: Avastin and Lucentis are both made by the same company, both equally effective at treating the same condition....but one dose of Avastin costs $50 while a single dose of Lucentis costs $2,000. Doctors choose the more expensive drug more than half a million times
every year, a choice that costs the Medicare program, the largest single
customer, an extra $1 billion annually.
GlaxoSmithKline has been found guilty of fraud and just agreed to a three BILLION dollar fine over pharmaceutical misuse. Earlier this year Abbott Laboratories was fined 1.6 billion dollars and it looks as though Johnson & Johnson will soon be fined two billion dollars.
Right before Christmas GlaxoSmithKline said it will quit paying doctors to promote their drugs. We can only hope that these fines motivate ALL pharmaceutical companies to follow suit.
And it doesn't have to be fraud. My own doctor is great: righteous and true....actively concerned for my good health. He belongs, like all doctors, to a specific network...and when I needed some imaging done, the network was happy to make an appointment for me at their imaging center...for a cost of about $1,200.
A few phone calls and I found an independent imaging center in Merrilville that did the exact same work for $160. I told my doctor and he was happy to send me up there. Before that, though, he'd had no idea....he's the doctor, his expertise is in getting me well, not in being a good shopper. I have to do that part myself.
And so should you.
A rough couple days for us all, eh? Who ever knew that 4 degrees could feel balmy!
We could all use a little humor!
First, Steve Berry's take on winter training for EMTs....
Secondly, more training for EMTs...this from Australia where they're having summer....Emergency Responders have to free a naked man from his washing machine using his own olive oil...and they used his good stuff, too.
( http://www.jems.com/article/news/rescuers-free-naked-aussie-washer-olive )
SYDNEY (AP) — A naked Australian man who became stuck in a washing
machine as part of an ill-planned practical joke was freed from the
appliance with the help of an unusual rescue device: olive oil.
The 20-year-old man, identified only as "Laurence," told Australia's
Fairfax Radio that he was on his way to take a shower on Saturday when
he decided to climb into the top-loader to have a bit of fun. The fun
quickly evaporated, however, when he realized he couldn't budge.
He called out to his friend for help, who rang the police. They
responded to the scene, along with firefighters, paramedics and a search
and rescue squad.
"He was very well wedged in there and we were concerned for his
health and well-being," Shepparton police Sgt. Michelle De Araugo told
the Shepparton News. "It was just a game gone wrong. It would be fair to
say the gentleman was very embarrassed."
Rescuers tried in vain to pull Laurence from the machine. But when it
became clear he was seriously stuck, they grabbed a bottle of his
favorite olive oil to help lubricate his escape. The oil worked, and he
popped out.
"I was quite disappointed they used my good olive oil," Laurence told
Fairfax Radio. "As soon as the washing machine went on its side, it was
a bit like a birthing."
Be well, my friends! Stay safe, stay warm.
