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Complications of influenza include: bacterial pneumonia, ear and sinus infections, dehydration, and worsening of chronic conditions such as asthma, congestive heart failure, or diabetes.
The use of salicylates dates back 2,500 years to Hippocrates’s recommendation of willow bark (from which a salicylate is derived) as an aid to the pains of childbirth. However, overdosage of salicylates can harm body fluids, electrolytes, the CNS, the GI tract, the ears, the lungs, the blood, the liver, and the kidneys and cause coma or death.
In 1864, the first barbiturate (barbituric acid) was synthesized.
Most childhood vaccines are 90–99% effective in preventing disease. Side effects are rarely serious.
Medication errors are more common among seriously ill patients than with those with minor conditions.