How Well Do You Know Your Flu?

The cold and flu season is here, as if you didn't know. But what you may not know is that...

• People in the United States suffer up to 1 billion colds per year, according to an estimate by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Other studies place the common cold as the top cause of U.S. doctor visits and missed work days, in addition to 22 million lost school days a year.
• Drinking milk will not increase nasal mucus during a cold, studies have shown. And inhaling steam is not an effective long-term treatment for relieving symptoms of congestion. Neither is feeding or starving a cold, although foods like chicken soup and hot beverages may be comforting for bed-ridden cold sufferers.
• The number of deaths will depend largely on how contagious and lethal the virus is -- two factors that cannot be known until the pandemic strain emerges. The CDC estimates a medium-level pandemic could cause 89,000 to 207,000 deaths in the United States alone. The WHO estimates 2 million to 7.4 million people could die worldwide. The 1918 pandemic, the worst of the modern era, killed more than 500,000 people in the United States and an estimated 20 million to 50 million people around the world. Today, experts are particularly concerned about the current strain of the avian flu virus because it has killed 50 percent of those who have contracted it.
• CDC models suggest a pandemic could affect up to 35 percent of the U.S. population, sickening 20 million to 47 million people and resulting in up to 42 million clinic visits and 734,000 hospitalizations. According to the CDC, existing prescription medications like Tamiflu, which are approved for human influenza viruses, may be of some use in combating avian flu. However, their effectiveness against avian flu is untested.

These facts and more are found in CNN.com's special report, "Fighting the Flu." All of your cold and flu questions will be answered with the help of this report, which offers several articles and reports that tell you all about these diseases. You can find out, for instance, the answer to a question that's been on people's minds for years: "How can a ferret help us in the fight against the flu?"

I highly recommend taking the cold and flu challenge . It's a "true or false" quiz that tests your cold and flu knowledge. I took it and got 6 out of 10, which is much better than I thought. Can you beat my score? I dare you to try.