Cold & Flu Health Center

News and Features Related to Cold & Flu

Swine Flu FAQ

The H1N1 swine flu virus appeared in the U.S. last April and never went away. After sweeping the globe, U.S. H1N1 swine flu cases surged as schools opened in the fall. What is H1N1 swine flu? What can we do about it? WebMD answers your questions. What is swine flu? What are swine flu symptoms? Who i
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H1N1 Swine Flu Deadly in All Age Groups

Nov. 3, 2009 - H1N1 swine flu isn't always severe, but when it's bad, it's really bad. Patients hospitalized with pandemic flu have an 11% fatality rate, data from California suggest. The pandemic flu bug is far more likely to strike younger people. But when people aged 50 and older get hospitalized
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Swine Flu Study on N95 Masks Retracted

Nov. 2, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- N95 masks may be no better than ordinary disposable surgical masks at preventing the flu, after all. The same researchers who reported in September that only N95 masks offer significant protection against flu now say a reanalysis of their data shows that just isn't tru
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Swine Flu Vaccine Protects Pregnant Women

Nov. 2, 2009 - Pregnant women safely get "robust" protection from one dose of the H1N1 swine flu vaccine; but children under age 10 really need two doses, NIH studies show. The findings are straight-from-the-clinic data from ongoing studies funded and coordinated by the National Institute of Allergy
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Flu Vaccine Safe Throughout Pregnancy

Oct. 30, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- Pregnant women who get the flu vaccine are less likely to have babies who are premature, small for their gestational age, or who have to be hospitalized, according to three new studies. A fourth study shows that the vaccine is safe throughout pregnancy -- even during
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Swine Flu and Asthma

Before the latest flu season had officially gotten under way, the swine flu (or H1N1 virus) was already stealing headlines as it left a trail of fever, aches, and general misery across the country. For people with asthma, watching the swine flu sweep across the nation has been especially nerve wrack
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Child H1N1 Swine Flu Deaths Rising

Oct. 30, 2009 -- Last week's 19 new child deaths is the biggest single-week jump since the H1N1 swine flu pandemic began. The child death toll in the U.S. pandemic now stands at 114 and is certain to rise, CDC Director Thomas Frieden, MD, MPH, said today at a news conference. Frieden announced that
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140 Times More Early Swine Flu Than Reported

Oct. 29, 2009 - By the end of July, up to 5.7 million Americans -- 140 times the reported number -- had H1N1 swine flu. As many as 21,000 were hospitalized by July 23, the CDC now estimates. This suggests that the current number of H1N1 swine flu-related hospitalizations -- just under 22,000 from th
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Kids Shed H1N1 Virus 6 Days After Fever

Oct. 29, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- Some elementary school kids with the swine flu are still shedding H1N1 virus six days after their fever strikes, a new study suggests. Researchers stopped short of saying these youngsters could still transmit the virus to their friends and family. But the findings rai
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Statin Drugs May Reduce Flu Deaths

Oct. 29, 2009 (Philadelphia) -- Once again, the popular cholesterol-lowering statin drugs have been shown to be good for more than the heart: They may also lower your odds of dying of the flu. In a large study of people hospitalized with seasonal influenza, those who were taking statins were about 5
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