Welcome to our special section on influenza.  We hope to provide you with the information you need to help you protect yourself during this alarming flu season!

Thank you to all who attended our community forum on November 10th at the LGBT Center in San Francisco. A special thank you to our panelists: Lawrence Drew, M.D., Jay Lalezari, M.D., and Alan McCord.

Below you will find down-loadable versions of the educational materials presented at our forum. Please feel free to use these materials in support of your educational programs on Influenza.

Slide Show

This is the full version of the slide show presentation from the community forum.

PDF Version

Powerpoint Version

Influenza Handouts

This version of our slide show has been formatted for use in classroom environments.

PDF Version

Dr. Lawrence Drew’s Influenza slides

PDF Version

Powerpoint Version

Thank you to Dr. Lawrence Drew for providing these materials.

Please note: Doctor Conant recommends that all HIV patients, pregnant women and health care workers should be vaccinated for both seasonal flu and swine flu (H1N1) as soon as possible.

Seasonal flu is available at Walgreens and other pharmaceutical outlets; however, supplies are limited, and it is predicted that that they will run out in the near future.

San Francisco has encountered problems receiving the H1N1 vaccine. Please check with your local health center for availability of the H1N1 vaccine.

The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) recommends you take three actions to fight the flu:

1. Take time to get vaccinated.  Vaccination is especially important for people at high risk of serious flu complications, including young children, pregnant women, people with chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes, heart and lung disease, or HIV and people 65 years and older.
2. Take every day preventative actions.  WASH YOUR HANDS!
3. Take antiviral medications if your doctor prescribes them.

Click here to read the entire text of the CDC’s recommentations.

Interested in flu activity and surveillance?

Click here to visit the CDC’s web site to get up to date information on flu activity.
Click here to visit an interesting site (provided by Google) that uses aggregated Google search data to estimate flu activity.

Click here to read the CDC’s recommendations on “What Adults with HIV Infection Should Know About 2009 H1N1 Flu (Formerly Called Swine Flu).”

Click here to browse health alerts from the “Desk of Doctor Conant.”