Male Speaker: We begin with the winter time bug that drives millions of us to bed each year, the flu. Almost 50 million people will come down with the influenza virus this year. Now, vaccination could eliminate many of these cases, but some folks would rather risk catching the bug, than get a shot. Now protection doesn’t have to hurt, take a look at new painless flu fighters designed to keep you on your feet this winter.
Female Speaker: I have had the flu and it made me feel like I train hit me.
Male Speaker: A lot of body aches, joint aches.
Male Speaker: Actually I stay in bed most of the time every after I am getting up.
Male Speaker: The clues are everywhere, from the drugs on the night stand, to the empty tissue boxes, flu season is here.
Female Speaker: Perhaps 10% to 20% of the US population can get infected with Influenza every year.
Male Speaker: Each year, the flu virus costs the United States economy about $12 billion, and causes about to 36,000 deaths.
Male Speaker: It's one of the biggest killers of mankind, believe it or not.
Male Speaker: Flu can strike anyone, but it's most common victims are the very young, people age 65 and older, healthcare workers and people with chronic health conditions.
Female Speaker: Hi, this feels terrible. Yeah I just feel miserable.
Male Speaker: Although, no one enjoys having the flu, many people are still skeptical about getting that age old shot of protection.
Female Speaker: Couple of days after getting the flu shot, I came down with the worst flu I have ever had.
Male Speaker: Sounds familiar. Dr. Caroline Bridges from the CDC, says there is no connection.
Dr. Caroline Bridges: So, people can get coincidental infections, around the same time that they get their flu shot and they may blame that on the vaccine, but it's not causal.
Male Speaker: Pain is the main reason, kids don’t like the flu shot, even if you tell them it's for their own good.
Female Speaker: He would start to cry and kicking, and you have to start to bribing and strong arm, and you are going to go --
Male Speaker: We know that schools are the big place, that children are put together, they transmit flu to themselves, and then take it home to the community.
Male Speaker: But this year, there are no excuses for needle phobs, the FDA approved a new pain free nasal vaccine, called FluMist, just in time fro flu season.
James King: It's a novel way of giving a vaccine, and it's given at the point where you get the flu in your nose.
Male Speaker: Flu germs enter the body through the nose and begin to multiply, by applying the vaccine directly at the point of infection, it can take out the virus before it has a chance to spread.
James King: It sets up a little infection in your nose, and your body protects you against that and makes antibodies in your nose and throats, against the flu.
Male Speaker: FluMist is actually made from a live virus, but it's weakened, so that it won’t make you sick.
James King: It won’t grow at body temperature, so it will grow in your nose, which is cooler than the rest of your body, but it will turn off as it gets further down.
Male Speaker: A study by the National Institutes of Health found FluMist was 85% affective in preventive flu in adult and almost 90% effective in preventing illness in children.
James King: If you can interrupt flu in the schools, you might have a big shot at interrupting it in the community.
Male Speaker: But for procrastinators and people allergic to the flu vaccine, anti viral drugs can help, even after the flu starts. These prescription medications do what over-the-counter remedies can’t, stop the flu in it's tracks.
Arnold Monto: The difference between this drug and vaccine is that it starts working immediately.
Male Speaker: The drugs can be taken orally or inhaled but they do the same thing, travel to the lungs and stop the virus from multiplying.
Arnold Monto: The drug does shorten the duration of Influenza and you start feeling better about a day after you start taking the drug.
Male Speaker: A study in the British Medical Journal found that newer antiviral drugs can cut the odds of developing flu by up to 90%.
Female Speaker: And the earlier you would start those, the more likely they are to decrease your symptoms and the number of days of you aren’t feeling numb.
Male Speaker: SO this winter, don’t let the flu give you the one-two punch, protection is just a sniff, whiff or swallow away. The FluMist vaccine is approved for healthy people age 5 to 49, although painless FluMist cost $46 a dose, compared to about $10 for the injectable vaccine.
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