When I say the flu, you say you think what?

So I think there's a lot of different uses of the word flu.

I think of the virus influenza, but I know that a lot of people confuse it with respiratory

infections as well as gut infections.

And things the flu is the flu, a cold is a cold, but really the reality is that there's

so many different viruses that cause these respiratory infections.

So influenza, you know, there's a few of them and they're just a subset of all the different

viruses.

That's Jeff Kwong.

I'm an epidemiologist and a researcher at the Institute for Clinical Evalidative Sciences

and also practices a family physician, a Toronto Western Hospital in Toronto.

And we are talking about the flu today, the influenza variety of the flu, because a, it

is flu season and b, the flu is really worth talking about.

Influenza definitely causes many deaths every year.

In the US, it's been estimated, you know, so the problem is that there's such a wide range.

Some years are very mild and some years are very severe.

So I think the average is something in the order of like 10 to 20,000 deaths each year.

It also causes probably 10 times more hospitalizations, causes lots of visits to emergency departments

and to physician offices.

It also causes a lot of people to take time off from work or school.

So it's been estimated about somewhere between 5 and 10 percent of the population will get

infected by influenza each year.

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