What is the Flu? How Serious is it?

Influenza, also called the "flu," is a highly contagious respiratory infection.

• Symptoms.
  Flu can cause fever, chills, headache, dry cough, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat, and muscle aches. Unlike other common respiratory infections such as the common cold, influenza can cause extreme fatigue lasting several days to more than a week. Although nausea, vomiting and diarrhea can sometimes accompany influenza infection, especially in children, gastrointestinal symptoms are rarely prominent. The illness that people often call "stomach flu" is not influenza.
  
   

• Spread from person to person.
  Influenza is spread easily from person to person primarily when an infected person coughs or sneezes. After a person has been infected with the virus, symptoms usually appear within 2 to 4 days. The infection is considered often contagious for another 3 to 4 days after symptoms appear. Because of this, people used to think the flu was caused by the "influence of the stars and planets." In the 1500s, the Italians called the disease "influenza," their word for influence. Each year, an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the population contracts influenza.

Flu Shot

How often is it covered? Once a year in the fall or winter

For whom? All people with Medicare

Your costs in the Original Medicare Plan? You pay nothing

Information you need to know about the Flu vaccine:

• What other steps can I take to prevent the Flu?
   

• What to do if you get the Flu.
  
  Frequently Asked Questions about the Flu and Flu Vaccine.
   

• To get additional information about the Flu (Influenza) to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones, please visit the www.cdc.gov website.
  
   

Medicare Demonstration Project Pays for Flu Medicines

Seniors who get the flu can get help paying for antiviral medicines under a new demonstration project. The Influenza Treatment Demonstration provides coverage to all Medicare beneficiaries for FDA-approved drugs for the treatment and targeted prevention of influenza. Under this demonstration project, Medicare will cover up to two prescriptions for certain anti-viral drugs for a person with Medicare

• with symptoms of influenza,

• or as a prevention measure for a person who has been exposed to a person with influenza, or

• in an institution where there has been an outbreak