P age B3
Influenza
Immunization Urged
The A dult Im m u n izatio n C o
a litio n , a g ro u p o f p riv a te and
governm ent health o rg an izatio n s,
is laun ch in g its annual "K n o ck
O ut the F lu e” cam paign for 1995.
Influenza is a co n tag io u s re s
pirato ry d isease w hich, com bined
w ith p n e u m o n ia , ran k s as the
sixth leading cau se o f death both
in O regon and n atio n ally A bout
33 p ercen t o f O re g o n 's h ig h -risk
in d iv id u als are not be v accin ated
a g a in st influenza.
“ Flue v a ccin es are a sim p le,
effe c tiv e way to p rev en t illn ess
and save lives. T hanks to th e ir
av ailab ility , the num ber o f d eaths
and d isa b ility cau sed by the Hu
can be su b sta n tia lly d e c re a s e d ,”
said Dr. G ran t H ig g in so n , state
health o fficer.
H igginson a lso n o tes that Hu
vaccin es are co v e re d by M ed i
c a re . He re c o m m e n d s g e ttin g
vaccin ated betw een m id -O cto b er
an d m id -N o v e m b e r sin c e flu
Never Underestimate
The Power Of A Wish
since flu seaso n a rriv e s in late
fall and p e rsists th ro u g h o u t the
w in ter m onths. T his allow s su ffi
cien t tim e for a n tib o d ie s to build
up b efo re the peak o f flu season.
T hose at g re a te st risk from
se v e re e ffe c ts o f the flu are:
healthy p eo p le w ho are 65 or o ld
e r, a d u lts a n d c h ild r e n w ith
chronic d iso rd e rs o f the heart and
lungs, in c lu d in g c h ild re n w ith
asthm a and re sid e n ts o f nursing
h om es and o th e r c h ro n ic -c a re
fa c ilitie s.
P eople w ho live and w ork
aro u n d h i g h r i s k p atien ts also
need to be v a c c in a ted b ecause
they can tra n sm it influenza to
h ig h risk p e r s o n s . I n f lu e n z a
strain s d iffe r each year, so the
c o a litio n a d v ise s citiz e n s to get
th e ir flu shot an n ually.
C o n tact yo u r health care p ro
v id er, cou nty health d ep artm en t
or 1-800 S A F E N E T for Hu c lin
ics in y our area.
Ebony McKinney is in recovery after being diagnosed with a life-
threatening disorder of the immune system.
Good Diet, Exercise Slows Heart Disease
A scanning technique used pri
marily for investigating brain disor
ders has confirmed that diet and
exercise can m oderately reverse
heart disease, according to a new
report.
A number o f studies in the past
few years have shown that low-fat
diets arid exercise can stop the pro
gression o f heart disease or even
partially reverse it but the degree to
which that happens has been diffi
cult to demonstrate, researchers at
the University o f Texas Medical
School said.
Ina study published in the Jour
nal o f the American Medical
Association, they reported on
th e u se o f p o s itro n e m issio n
tomography (PET) scans on a group
o f 35 patients observed over a five-
year period who had been diagnosed
with coronary artery disease. Fifteen
o f the patients ate a vegetarian diet
consisting o f 15 percent protein and
75 percent complex carbohydrates,
stepped smoking if they had been,
practiced stress management tech
niques for an hour daily and did mi Id-
to-moderate aerobic exercises three
hours a week. Forty-five percent o f
the patients not on the diet and exer
cise program had a worsening o f the
build-up o f plaque on artery walls,
wh i le 50 percent in that group showed
no change. “By comparison most o f
the patients in the experimental
group (all but I percent) showed
improvement or no change. The
difference in these changes between
control and experimental groups
was significant,” the report said.
The scanning technique pro
duces three-dimensional images o f
blood flow through the circulatory
system. Such scans have primarily
been used in medicine for probing
brain disorders.
The researchers said the tech
nique is also much cheaper and less
invasive than using angiograms
currently the most common method
for checking on blocked or clogged
arteries.
A nyone w ho thinks w ishes
d o n 't com e true h a sn ’t talked to
Ebony M cK inney.
T h e 1 9 - y e a r - o ld c o lle g e
s o p h o m o r e fo rm P itts b u r g h ,
Penn., has seen tw o big w ishes
com e true in her life and hopes
one day she can help grant w ish
es to o th e rs through the M ake-A -
W ish F oundation.
As a pre-teen , M cK inney was
diag n o sed w ith a life -th re a te n
ing d iso rd e r o f the im m une sy s
tem. She spent m any years in
co n stan t pain and the m e d ic a
tions m ade her feel u n c o m fo rt
able and u n a ttra c tiv e . A lthough
she was an e x cellen t stu d e n t, she
m issed a lot o f school b ecause o f
her illn e ss. In on bleak m om ent
she c o n sid e re d su icide.
But n e v e r u n d erestim ate the
p o w e r o f a w is h o rtw o w ishes for
that m atter. M cK inney certa in ly
d o e s n ’t.
W hen she w as 10, she told
the M ake-A -W ish F o u n d a tio n
sh e ’d like to m eet her fa v o rite
pop sin g e r sta r W hitney H o u s
ton H aving her w ish a c tu a lly
com e true, at a c o n c e rt in Los
A ngeles in 1986, "h e lp e d me
start believ in g in th in g s again,
in o th e r people and in m y se lf,”
M cK inney said.
T oday, M cK inney ’s d ise a se
is in clin ical rem issio n and she
recen tly started her seco n d y e a r
at C hatham C o lleg e for w om en
in P ittsb u rg h , w here she is m a
jo rin g in E nglish w ith a m in o r in
com m unications.
T his year m arks the 15th a n
n iv e rsa ry o f the fo u n d in g o f
M ake-A -W ish. S ince 1980, the
o rg an izatio n has grow n to 83
ch ap ters in the U nited S tates,
with 13 in tern atio n al a ffilia te s.
F oundation v o lu n te e rs have
granted m ore than 3 3 ,0 0 0 w ish
es to ch ild ren w ith term in al ill
nesses.
Is It A Cold Or The Flu?
When people say they have the
Hue, do they really?
Influenza is caused by one of
two virus strain types A or B and it is
only prevalent during the fall and
winter months.
The flu is characterized by a
sudden high fever, head and muscle
aches and sore throat. People can
expect to fell sick usually 5-10 days.
I he Hue has very little to do with any
nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.
A cold is an upper respiratory
infection caused by hundreds of vi
ruses. It can last five to seven days
and appears any time o f the year. A
tlu shot does not prevent a cold, but
it’s 70 percent effective in fighting
the Hue virus in healthy persons.
“The flue is considered a pre
ventable infectious disease, says Dr.
Adrianee Feldstein, internist and di
rector o f Kaiser Permanente’s Occu
pational Health Services Department.
"I highly recommend one (a tlu shot)
for the elderly, chronically ill, or
anyone who wants to decrease their
chance of getting the virus this win
ter.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease
Control say October is the time to get
a flu shot. This gives the body enough
time to build up immunities needed
to fight the virus during the flue sea
son, which usually runs November
through February.
For more information on where
toget flu vaccinations, people should
contact their health care provider or
cal! 1—800-SAFENET for a listing
o f flu clinics in the community.
Needle Exchange Slow Spread Of AIDS
Needle exchange programs can
slow the spread o f AIDS among drug
users and the federal government
should lift a ban on helping to fund
them, an influential medical adviso
ry panel has said.
The joint panel o f the National
Research Council and the Institute o f
Medicine also concluded that needle
exchange programs do not encour
age more people to use drugs or lead
drug abusers to take even more drugs.
The panel, which gives non
binding but influential advice to the
government, did not call for a man
datory national needleexchange pro
gram, but said communities should
be free to establish them without
federal obstacles or fear o f losing
federal funding.
AIDS initially, mainly affected
gay men, who accounted for aboui
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three-fourths o f the cases, but only
half the cases are now linked to male
homosexual sex.
At the same time, the proportion
o f cases involving people who inject
illegal drugs, often sharing needles
contaminated with HIV, the deadly
AIDS virus, rose from 12 percent in
1981 to 28 percent in 1993.
That in turn has led to increasing
numbers o f women and children in
fected with HIV, either through drug
use by the women or their having sex
with partners who were drug users.
Infected women can pass the virus to
unborn babies.
The book-length report says nee
dle exchange programs are prefera
ble to just using bleach to sterilize
needles, although bleach is better
than nothing at all.
“Needle exchange programs in-
crease the availability o f sterile in
jection equipment,” the report said.
“The lower the fraction o f needles in
circulation that are contaminated, the
lower the risk o f new HIV infec
tions.”
A lthough the act o f giving a
clean needle to a drug addict “ has
a p o w erful sym bolism that has
spark ed fe a rs” th at it will e n
courage drug use, the reverse may
be tru e , it said.
“These programs often result in
more referrals to drug abuse treat
ment,” said panel chairman Lincoln
Moses, a health policy professor
emeritus at Stanford.
The panel recommended more
long-term monitoring on drug use
patterns, saying experience with
needle-exchange programs is limit
ed.
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