France's Effect on the United States' Flu Shortage
             In an average year, flu kills 36,000 people and hospitalizes another 114,000, mostly the elderly. The United States is experiencing the worst nationwide shortage of flu vaccine in history, putting young children, the elderly and chronically ill patients at greater risk for contracting the flu. Health officials are working to cope with the shortage during the current flu season. Not only is the United States suffering, but France battles with the flu epidemic. Flu shot campaigns usually start in October, a month before the flu season typically begins. To improve this fatal epidemic, Sanofi-Aventis, a French pharmaceutical company, has agreed to fund anti-flu vaccines to the United States in order to improve the fatal epidemic occurring in these countries.
             Hospitals around Paris have struggled to cope with a double outbreak of flu and gastroenteritis. Reuters news agency says more than 500,000 people in France have contracted the bugs in recent weeks, putting extra pressure on hospitals. Officials said the epidemic had nothing in common with the summer, when nearly 15,000 people died from extreme heat. Critics say that emergency rooms are still crowded and resources scarce, while experts say things will worsen.
            
             As hospital staff rushed to attend to the many children brought in with symptoms of flu, waiting time for emergency patients increased to seven hours in some Paris hospitals. Some hospitals launched a "White Plan", similar to the one during the summer heat wave, and recalled off-duty staff. The French Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei acknowledged some services in the Paris area had been inundated. But France's General Director for Health, William Dab, told reporters that the phenomenon was nothing like the summer's heat wave. "At that ti...