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© St. Petersburg Times, published August 20, 2002
PHILADELPHIA -- Despite the cost, healthy adults benefit from an annual flu shot because they don't lose as much work time and they spend less on treatment, a study says.
Researchers also found that once people get the flu, antiviral medicine started within 48 hours of seeing symptoms was worth the expense in terms of making the patients feel better and getting them back to work, the study in today's Annals of Internal Medicine says.
"Given that typically the complications of influenza within the healthy population are so low, it was somewhat surprising," said Dr. Patrick Lee, a Stanford University resident and the study's lead author.
The government recommends the vaccine for the elderly, the chronically ill and pregnant women, though it is available to others.
Starting this flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's immunization panel is encouraging flu shots for children 6 months to 23 months.
The researchers stopped short of recommending that the general population get vaccinated, citing recent vaccine shortages that surely would worsen in such a case.
On average, a person who comes down with the flu loses 2.8 days at work, meaning about $398 in lost wages, the study concluded, based on previous studies and Labor Department statistics.
Researchers said that visiting a doctor and getting a flu shot would save about $30. Using a symptom-shortening antiviral medication resulted in similar savings.
While flu vaccine is beneficial to healthy adults, the priority should be vaccinating more of the highest-risk people, CDC flu expert Carolyn Bridges said.
"When you look at vaccination of healthy adults, the bulk of economic benefit is decreased absenteeism; the benefit for the elderly is reduced medical costs and fewer complications that require hospitalization," she said.
The study's authors acknowledged a potential drawback to the research: It used computers to simulate the effect of a flu season on a "virtual" group of healthy people between 18 and 50, using statistics on flu severity and treatment efficacy from previously published research.
But Lee said flu strains, severity, location and timing vary so widely from year to year that a computer model likely provides a better snapshot than a real-world analysis.
FDA APPROVES ACNE TREATMENT: Patients with a certain type of acne can soon opt for light therapy to try to clear it up.
The Food and Drug Administration approved a device Monday that emits high-intensity light to help clear up moderate inflammatory acne.
The ClearLight system doesn't work on severe acne or mild cases of pimples but works only on inflammatory acne, which is caused by bacteria, said Neil Ogden, FDA's director of general-surgery devices.
Israel-based Lumenis Inc. estimates patients would pay about $50 a session, or $400 for a full course of treatment. It's not clear how often recurrent acne sufferers could undergo light therapy.
HONEY GOOD FOR YOUR HEART: An ounce of honey might fight heart disease as well as the same amount of fruits or vegetables such as spinach, garlic, oranges or strawberries, according to research presented at the American Chemical Society conference.
Honey, fruits and vegetables trigger similar antioxidant activity, researchers found. Antioxidants hinder the breakdown of cholesterol in the bloodstream. Heart specialists believe that the breakdown, called oxidation, contributes to the fatty deposits in arteries.