Every year in the United States, on average 5% to 20% of the population becomes sick with influenza (the flu); more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications, and about 36,000 people die from flu. Some people - such as older people, young children, and people with certain health conditions - are at high risk for serious flu complications. 100 Questions and Answers About Influenza provides answers to 100 most common questions about influenza, with emphasis on new strains of the disease including the Avian Influenza.

Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Moreover, recent problems with the availability and strain-specificity of vaccine for annual flu epidemics in some countries and the rise of pandemic strains of avian flu in disparate geographic regions have alarmed experts about the world's ability to prevent or contain a human pandemic. The workshop summary, The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? addresses these urgent concerns. The report describes what steps the United States and other countries have taken thus far to prepare for the next outbreak of "killer flu." It also looks at gaps in readiness, including hospitals' inability to absorb a surge of patients and many nations' incapacity to monitor and detect flu outbreaks. The report points to the need for international agreements to share flu vaccine and antiviral stockpiles to ensure that the 88 percent of nations that cannot manufacture or stockpile these products have access to them. It chronicles the toll of the H5N1 strain of avian flu currently circulating among poultry in many parts of Asia, which now accounts for the culling of millions of birds and the death of at least 50 persons. And it compares the costs of preparations with the costs of illness and death that could arise during an outbreak.

If you suffer from asthma, or have a friend or relative who does, this book offers help. the only book to provide the doctor's and patient's view, 100 Questions and amp; Answers About Asthma gives you authoritative, practical answers to your questions about treatment options, coping strategies -- for both patient and family, sources of support, and much more. Written by a world-class asthma expert and featuring insider's advice from an actual patient, this book is an invaluable resource for anyone coping with the physical and emotional turmoil of this debilitating disease.

100 Questions & Answers About Muscular Dystrophy offers essential and practical guidance. This unique book provides both doctor and patient perspectives and offers answers to the most asked questions by patients and their loved ones. What is muscular dystrophy? How do I find good medical care? What should I expect at a neurology appointment? How can I treat my pain? Along with the answers to these and other questions, this book provides information on diagnosis, treatment, living with MD, new therapeutic options, and more. Written by a leading expert on the topic with more than 20 years experience caring for patients with MD, 100 Questions & Answers About Muscular Dystrophy is an easy-to-read book and must-have resource for those with living MD and their loved ones.

Veteran journalist Gina Kolata's Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus That Caused It presents a fascinating look at true story of the world's deadliest disease. In 1918, the Great Flu Epidemic felled the young and healthy virtually overnight. An estimated forty million people died as the epidemic raged. Children were left orphaned and families were devastated. As many American soldiers were killed by the 1918 flu as were killed in battle during World War I. And no area of the globe was safe. Eskimos living in remote outposts in the frozen tundra were sickened and killed by the flu in such numbers that entire villages were wiped out. Scientists have recently rediscovered shards of the flu virus frozen in Alaska and preserved in scraps of tissue in a government warehouse. Gina Kolata, an acclaimed reporter for The New York Times, unravels the mystery of this lethal virus with the high drama of a great adventure story. Delving into the history of the flu and previous epidemics, detailing the science and the latest understanding of this mortal disease, Kolata addresses the prospects for a great epidemic recurring, and, most important, what can be done to prevent it.

EMPOWER YOURSELF! All parents and family members will appreciate 100 Questions & Answers About Childhood Immunizations. The only text to provide both a doctor’s and patient’s point of view, this text presents up-to-date, authoritative, practical answers to the most commonly asked questions about the safety and administration of immunizations in children and adolescents. This book is an invaluable resource for all parents and family members negotiating their most effective treatment options for their children.

#1 New York Times bestseller “Barry will teach you almost everything you need to know about one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history.”—Bill Gates "Monumental... an authoritative and disturbing morality tale."—Chicago Tribune The strongest weapon against pandemic is the truth. Read why in the definitive account of the 1918 Flu Epidemic. Magisterial in its breadth of perspective and depth of research, The Great Influenza provides us with a precise and sobering model as we confront the epidemics looming on our own horizon. As Barry concludes, "The final lesson of 1918, a simple one yet one most difficult to execute, is that...those in authority must retain the public's trust. The way to do that is to distort nothing, to put the best face on nothing, to try to manipulate no one. Lincoln said that first, and best. A leader must make whatever horror exists concrete. Only then will people be able to break it apart." At the height of World War I, history’s most lethal influenza virus erupted in an army camp in Kansas, moved east with American troops, then exploded, killing as many as 100 million people worldwide. It killed more people in twenty-four months than AIDS killed in twenty-four years, more in a year than the Black Death killed in a century. But this was not the Middle Ages, and 1918 marked the first collision of science and epidemic disease.