"The Flu: What You Should Know" TV Special

This week Commissioner Auerbach and DPH Medical Director Dr. Lauren Smith appeared on a special addition of Hopkinton Community Television’s "Physician Focus" titled "The Flu: What You Should Know."

Commissioner Auerbach and Dr. Smith joined Erin Tracy, M.D., an obstetrician-gynecologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Vice Chair of the Massachusetts Section of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and Bruce Karlin, M.D., a primary care physician in Worcester and Vice Chair of the Medical Society’s Communications Committee to discuss important flu related topics including the difference between H1N1 (swine) flu and seasonal flu, vaccine safety and supply, how to protect against the infections, and what to do if you get sick.

"Physician Focus" is The Massachusetts Medical Society’s monthly educational program on health care. In addition to being distributed to local public access television stations across the Commonwealth, the program is available for viewing online at http://www.hcam.tv/series/physicianfocus/flu/index.shtml. This page also contains two public service announcements produced specifically for the show. The first contains messages about the flu for pregnant women and the second provides guidelines on when patients should go to the emergency room.

We encourage all residents to utilize the comments section on this blog to engage with us and each other.  While we cannot respond to every comment or question directly, we find them very helpful to understand your questions and concerns and plan for future posts. 

Comments

[Ms Chanler]

I agree.
When will the towns with H1N1 flu clinics open the H1N1 shot for the high risk adult population with chronic disease?

The US gov. has now included the high risk adult population. Why has the state of MA been slow to respond?
Other states have included the adult at risk population with their H1N1 flu clinics.
After speaking with my town's health dept. I was told the town was following guidelines set up by the state of MA. The state needs to update their recommended proceedures to include the high risk adult population so that towns will respond accordingly.

[Ms. Daughtry]

H1N1 is hard for adults with undermining health conditions to get most of the towns in Western MA that have had shot dates are only allowing pregnant women and children. Those with chronic health conditons can not get the information from Dr or town announcements do not cover this group. This has been the case in Westfield and Amherst MA. This is a at risk group being missed.

[Laura]

Thank you for the detailed reports. Please do read this and consider what I have to say. I know you cannot respond but I will look to see if you change the thing I find misleading to the public.
I have a comment on you dividing "seasonal and untested" flu in one catagory on the later graphs and "h1n1 novel 2009" (ie pandemic strain)> The CDC says on cdc.gov/flu that more than 99% of flu A tested by them is the pandemic strain, and they show on tables that less then one percent (I think it is 0.3%) is flu B. That is THIS weeks results but I have checked the website weekly for months and it has been similar.

Basically, the CDC has said for months, and I assume you are aware of this, that 'all flu is swine flu". There has been very little, if any, seasonal flu out there. Untested flu is also very highly likely to be swine flu.

People perusing your graph would look at "confirmed cases" and take that be close to the real number. WHen rather, very FEW suspected cases can be confirmed as they are ONLY testing hosptitalized cases, and not all of them at that. VERY FEW, a very low percentage, of people with flu could possibly be confirmed as H1n1. Moreover, the number closer to the REAL number of pandemic flu cases is the seasonal, untested, and confirmed numbers combined because almost all flu is the pandemic strain right now.

It' s hard when manipulating numbers to think about what they are communcating and tho whom. I feel that innadvertantly devididnt the chart this way without explaining RIGHT UNDER IT that almost all flu has been swine flu and most cases are NOT tested so cannot be confirmed (a star on the "seasonal and untested flu". is innadvertantly misleading.

In fact right now, it should be "pandemic and unconfirmed" cases togeather. ANd "seasonal flu cases" separate from that. Given the CDC results that would be vastly more accurate.