Q: Is there enough?
A: Yes. The federal government has stockpiled enough of the drugs to treat 50 million people, and many states have additional stocks. As a precaution, the CDC has shipped a quarter of that supply to the states to keep on hand just in case the virus starts spreading more than it has so far.
Q: Should I take Tamiflu as a precaution if I’m not sick yet?
A: No. “What are you going to do with it, use it when you get a sniffle?” asks Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University Langone Medical Center and author of “Bird Flu: Everything you Need To Know About The Next Pandemic.” Overusing antiviral drugs can help germs become resistant to them.
Q: How big is my risk?
A: For most people, very low. Outside of Mexico, so far clusters of illnesses seem related to Mexican travel. New York City’s cluster, for instance, consists of students and family members at one school where some students came back ill from spring break in Mexico.
Q: Why are people dying in Mexico and not here?
A: That’s a mystery. First, understand that no one really knows just how many people in Mexico are dying of this flu strain, or how many have it. Only a fraction of the suspected deaths have been tested and confirmed as swine flu, and some initially suspected cases were caused by something else.
Q: Should I cancel my planned trip to Mexico?
A: The U.S. did issue a travel advisory Monday discouraging nonessential travel there.
Q: What else is the U.S., or anyone else, doing to try to stop this virus?
A: The U.S. is beginning limited screening of travelers from Mexico, so that the obviously sick can be sent for treatment. Other governments have issued their own travel warnings and restrictions. Mexico is taking the biggest steps, closings that limit most crowded gatherings. In the U.S., communities with clusters of illness also may limit contact–New York closed the affected school for a few days, for example–so stay tuned to hear if your area eventually is affected.
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