Julie Gerberding
Julie Gerberding
Julie Louise Gerberding, M.D., M.P.H., is an American infectious disease expert and the former director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventionand administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry...
attention concerns criteria develop flu illness medical meet optimistic parts people plenty seek sure
We are cautiously optimistic that at least in some parts of the country, influenza may have peaked. But there's still plenty of flu out there, and we're still encouraging people with flu-like illness who meet the criteria for concerns or complications to be sure and seek medical attention if they do develop the illness.
activity difficult early flu impact local predict season seeing seven severe spectrum state ultimately
We're very early in the flu season this year. We're seeing very sporadic activity in seven states, and one state with local activity, but it's way at the very early stages. So it's difficult to predict how severe the season will be, when it will take off, and when it will peak, and what ultimately the spectrum of impact will be,
early emerge flu hoping late past peak phase seen though
Even though we're hoping that we're past the peak for this early phase of the season, in past years we have seen flu come back, ... And we've also seen new strains emerge late in the season. So it's still important to be vigilant.
beginning doses flu goal million people predict season serious speeds vaccine whether year
Well, we're just at the beginning of the flu season, so we can't predict whether this is going to be a serious year or not, ... We have 20 million more doses of flu vaccine to get out there, and our goal is to get those doses to the people who need it the most before the season really speeds up.
detect flu help prepare situation steps taken taking transfer virus watching
We're watching the situation with the avian flu very carefully, taking the steps that need to be taken now to help prepare and, most importantly, detect the transfer of that virus into people, ... But it is a very worrisome situation.
early flu people plenty season time year
Fortunately, this year the flu season is not off to an early start, and there is plenty of time for people to get their shots,
aggressive country flu last less season time
This year's flu season is not off to an aggressive start. We have less flu in the country than we did this time last year,
context deal flu last vulnerable
It's a vulnerable population, and the last thing they need to deal with in the context of all the other difficulties is a flu outbreak.
flu hard hour past people realize start until
When you start getting the flu it's hard to distinguish it from any other upper respiratory infections so most people don't realize they have flu until past the 48 hour window.
arms flu shot
We want the flu shot in their arms first.
cases expect point predict time virus
We expect more cases - definitely. We really can't predict at this point of time where the virus will go next.
certainly dealing last learned year
We certainly learned last year that there are always some uncertainties in dealing with influenza.
among anyone childhood country diseases experience health measles people reason side status suspect unusual whom
It would be unusual for measles or rubella or the other childhood-vaccine-preventable diseases to emerge, but many of the people in these shelters are among the people in our country who already experience health disparities, and we're erring on the side of immunizing anyone for whom we have any reason to suspect their vaccination status is not up-to-date.
data indicate larger magnitude problem
These data indicate that the magnitude of the problem is larger than we once thought,