NIH Radio
Understanding Influenza, Pandemic Flu – 1
Narrator: This is NIH Health Matters. The flu is a respiratory infection caused by viruses.
Fauci: There are two reasons to be concerned about the flu.
Narrator: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases says one concern is that seasonal flu is itself a serious disease, killing more than a quarter of a million people worldwide each year.
Fauci: And more than 200—perhaps between 200,000 and 300,000 excess hospitalizations associated with the flu. And there’s also the threat of having what we call a pandemic flu.
Narrator: Pandemic flu refers to special strains of flu that spread rapidly from person to person to create a world-wide epidemic. For details on this, and more about medical research, visit www.nih.gov. Health Matters is produced by the National Institutes of Health, part of the US Department of Health and Human Services.
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