Health Matters

THE FLU IS ALWAYS A NASTY FOEand it's particularly vicious this year.

- By Angela Haupt

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been at least 12 million flu infections since the fall in the U.S., leading to 160,000 hospitalizations and 6,600 deaths. Most of these are influenza A, a strain that causes more serious illness than influenza B.

"If you're getting flulike symptoms and you're like, "This feels worse than before, you're not wrong," says Dr. Mahesh Polavarapu, medical director of emergency medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian Westchester.

"It's pretty harsh this year." Fortunately, there are ways to alleviate at least some of the misery of the flu (besides, of course, getting your annual flu shot before you get sick).

Doctors often prescribe Tamiflu, an antiviral that can treat both influenza A and B. While most people have flu symptoms for three to seven days, Tamiflu can shorten that by about 24 hours by blocking the virus from replicating in your body. "It's basically stopping the virus from multiplying or shedding any more than it already has," Polavarapu says.