Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Why should I get a flu shot?

Well, there's a hack of a lot of flu coming our way. Consider this:

  • Flu viruses reproduce every 8 hours.
  • That's a three times daily opportunity to meet and mate with other influenza viruses in the neighborhood.
  • If seasonal A(H1N1) rolls in the tracheal hay (that's your airway!) with swine-origin 2009(H1N1), the latter could develop an even more effective way of passing from human to human.
Conclusion? You do NOT want these bad actors fooling around together in your nose and throat. In order to prevent such airway orgies, you need two shots. The CDC currently recommends that you get the seasonal flu vaccine now to prevent crazy long lines in late October when the swine flu vaccine rolls off production lines and into your neighborhood Safeway. So roll up your sleeve, and get shot 1 now.

2 comments:

kenju said...

We are scheduled for Sept. 16th.



Have you ever used a Neti pot?

denverdoc said...

No, although I've tried sinus irrigation through other means. I personally think it's like getting water up your nose while swimming, i.e. highly unpleasant. I have any number of patients, however, who think Neti Pots are just dandy. If anyone needs a YouTube Neti Pot demo which can either be viewed as really cool or kind of gross, check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8sDIbRAXlg