Thursday, December 4, 2008

Research News: Flu On Campus: Avoiding Misery For $20

The News:
Flu On Campus: Avoiding Misery For $20
Richard Knox, NPR's Morning Edition
Every year, about 1 in 4 college students gets the flu — and one health expert says many arrive on campus not realizing how bad a bout of flu can be. Dr. Peter Doyle, director of Northeastern University's health services in Boston, says "true flu," as distinguished from an ordinary cold, can be two weeks of "aching joints, aching muscles, high fever, pounding headache, inability to get out of bed, shaking chills — a completely disruptive illness." Even worse, some students each year end up with dangerous cases of bacterial pneumonia that can follow on the heels of the flu. Occasionally, a previously healthy young adult dies. But Doyle says these health risks don't motivate students enough to get a flu shot. So he makes a more economic argument.

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

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