Tag: influenza

During cold and flu season, there are several medical treatments that are hotly contested. Most commonly, it is whether or not to get a flu vaccine. A close second is whether or not to give Tamiflu to a patient who has been diagnosed with influenza….

If you look down my schedule in the winter time, the most common complaints you will see are fever and cough. I have already addressed fever, so now it’s time to address coughs. So many things can cause a cough. Just discussing the common causes…

If you’ve ever heard it, you will never forget it: the sound of a child with a croup cough, which has a very distinctive sound. Unfortunately, you’ll typically hear it in the middle of the night, so you are going to need to know what to…

Every fall/winter we go through the same dreaded respiratory virus season.  What exactly does that mean?  For doctors it means very busy days in the office.  For patients it means lots of colds, coughs, croup, sinus infections, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and influenza to name…

Every fall we are faced with the same question: To get the flu shot or not to get the flu shot? There are so many myths surrounding the influenza vaccine that many people grapple with this decision yearly, even people who otherwise get all of their…

So it’s cold and flu season and your child is sick.  How do you know what he/she has and then what do you do about it? The term “flu” is commonly thrown around to describe anything from a runny nose to viral gastroenteritis, or the…

For the third time this week, I saw an otherwise fully immunized, lifelong patient of mine, in the office for well-child care and again (as I do every year) recommended the flu vaccine. And his mother lifted an eyebrow at me and said, “You know…