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Tuesday, December 7, 2010

US : 3 flu strains hit Iowa at once

An article from Des Moines Register :

" The flu is starting to hit home, with three different strains of the virus appearing in Iowa, state health officials said today.

“That means you could get three different kinds of flu in one year,” said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, medical director of the Iowa Department of Public Health. “In most typical years, you could get the flu once, and then you were basically done.”

Quinlisk said she’d never seen the situation in her more than 20 years working in public health.The good news, Quinlisk said, is this year’s version of the flu vaccine protects against all three bugs.

One of the current viruses is H1N1, which sickened hundreds of thousands of Iowans last fall and winter.

The new strain required a separate vaccine, which was in short supply for months. But this fall’s version of the general flu vaccine includes H1N1, and the shots are readily available."

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