Flu watch: Prevention is the best medicine

Many doctors call my office asking if their patients’ fever, cough and other respiratory symptoms mean they have pandemic H1N1 flu, or swine flu. As an epidemiologist and physician specializing in infectious diseases, I can tell you that the majority of flu cases are now due to H1N1. But it doesn’t really matter whether it’s the H1N1 or seasonal flu. Once you have the symptoms, which are nearly identical, we recommend caring for them the same way.

By: Timothy Burke, M.D., Duluth News Tribune