What is influenza?
Influenza, often called the flu, is a viral infection that affects your lungs and airways. Flu symptoms are a little bit like the common cold but are much more severe.
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The flu spreads easily from person to person, sometimes causing epidemics (when many people get sick within a very short time)
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The flu causes chills, fever, headache, sore throat, and cough
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Most people recover, but flu makes some people very sick and some die from pneumonia, a bad lung infection
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Doctors will have you rest, drink plenty of fluids, and take medicine for your symptoms if needed—sometimes they'll have you take antiviral medicines
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People age 6 months or older should get a flu vaccine each year to help prevent the flu
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The flu vaccine is the best way to prevent the flu, but you need to get a shot each year—the flu virus changes each year, so last year’s shot probably won't prevent this year’s flu
What causes influenza?
The virus spreads:
Flu season in the United States lasts from November through March. Each year, millions of people get the flu and thousands die.
The flu virus changes a little bit from year to year. These changes can cause problems:
Sometimes the changes in the flu virus make it both more likely to spread and more deadly. This happens a few times every hundred years and causes huge worldwide flu epidemics. These epidemics kill millions of people around the world. Fortunately, because the virus keeps changing, this ultra-dangerous flu eventually changes to a less dangerous one.
What are the symptoms of flu?
Early symptoms of flu include:
Later symptoms include:
Most symptoms go away within a week, but the cough may last for weeks.
Children, pregnant women, older people, people with other diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and lung disease, and people with a weak immune system may have more severe symptoms. They may also get pneumonia.
How can doctors tell if I have the flu?
How do doctors treat the flu?
Doctors will:
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Tell you to get lots of rest and drink plenty of fluids, especially until your fever goes away
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Tell you to take certain medicines to help you feel better, such as acetaminophen or ibuprofen for muscle aches and fever, or decongestants for a stuffy nose
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Sometimes, give you antiviral medicines, if you’ve had symptoms for just 1 or 2 days
How can I prevent the flu?
Take these measures:
Almost everyone 6 months and older should get a flu shot (vaccine) each year to help prevent the flu. Talk to your doctor about getting a flu shot.
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Most flu shots are made using eggs, so people with severe egg allergies need to have a special egg-free flu shot—be sure to tell your doctor if you have an allergy to eggs
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It takes 2 weeks for the flu vaccine to work, so doctors in the United States suggest getting it in October, before flu season starts
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If you can't safely get a flu shot, doctors may give you antiviral medicine to prevent the flu if there’s an outbreak of flu in your area
Sometimes you still get the flu after you had a flu shot. However, the shot makes getting the flu a lot less likely. Also, many people who think they got the flu after having the shot really just had a bad cold and not the flu.
Drugs Mentioned In This Article
| Generic Name | Select Brand Names |
|---|---|
acetaminophen |
TYLENOL |
ibuprofen |
ADVIL, MOTRIN IB |
