Daily HealthBeat Tip - January 11, 2008

Flu and asthma

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

A study indicates that the chance that a young child with the flu needs medical care goes up if the child also has asthma.

Kathryn Miller of Vanderbilt University Medical Center bases that on 330 laboratory-confirmed cases of flu out of 2,800 children ages 6 months to 59 months. Her study in the journal Pediatrics was supported by HHS agencies.

Miller found that kids with asthma were more likely than kids without asthma to have had outpatient care or been hospitalized for influenza. She also found that parents reported less than 30 percent of kids with asthma were vaccinated.

``Influenza causes many hospitalizations and doctors’ visits each year among kids with asthma. The best way to reduce your risk and your child’s risk of flu each year is to receive the flu vaccine.’’ (10 seconds)

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: January, 11 2008