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Huston Street wants you to get a flu shot
Former University of Texas Longhorn baseball player Huston Street, now a relief pitcher for the Oakland A’s, wants you to get a flu shot.
Especially if you have heart disease.
I didn’t know this, but the flu can exacerbate heart disease and lead to viral or bacterial pneumonia. That’s why flu-related death is more common among people who have heart disease. For those folks, a flu shot is as important as controlling cholesterol in preventing heart attacks and strokes, according to the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology.
Street cares because one of his Oakland A’s teammates died this past year of heart disease at the age of 28. Street has teamed up with the Mended Hearts’ I Heart Flu Shots campaign to remind people to get a flu shot. He brings that campaign to Austin today for the American Heart Association’s Heart Walk, which starts at 8 a.m. in front of the Capitol.
“I have seen the devastating effects of heart disease, and know how important it is to protect against its complications,” Street said in a press release. “Since the flu can be so dangerous for heart patients, it is important to make people with heart disease aware of the importance of an annual flu vaccination.”
The flu affects up to 20 percent of Americans every year, causing an average of 36,000 deaths, mostly in people age 65 or older.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in Texas, but just one in three adults with heart disease received the flu vaccine in 2005. Getting a flu shot is one small thing people can do to protect themselves.
Austin’s Health Department will offer flu shots to uninsured or underinsured Austin/Travis County residents who are at a high risk of complications. Several clinics in the area will provide the flu shots through November. For more details including dates and locations, go to www.ci.austin.tx.us/health.
Mended Hearts is a national patient support group affiliated with the American Heart Association. For more information about its campaign, go to www.iheartflushots.com.
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