It is the spring when the flu is high, the spring climate is gradually warmer and more changeable, sometimes cold and hot, easy to cool the body's resistance declines, virus invasion. Are you not yet clear, what is the flu? How did it spread? And how to prevent it? Answer these questions for you today.
What is influenza? What is the mode of transmission?
Influenza, also known as influenza, is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by influenza virus, which is highly contagious, spreads rapidly, and is prone to widespread transmission. Flu symptoms and signs are generally more serious than the common cold, mostly self-limiting, some due to the emergence of pneumonia and other complications can develop into severe influenza, severe influenza mainly occurs in the elderly, young children, pregnant women or people with chronic underlying diseases and other high-risk groups, but also in the general population. Influenza is mainly transmitted through droplets, such as sneezing and coughing, which are all ways of transmission, passing through the mucous membranes such as the mouth, nose, and eyes, resulting in infection.
What are the clinical symptoms of influenza?
Typical clinical symptoms of influenza are acute onset of high fever, generalized pain, significant fatigue, and mild respiratory symptoms. Often sudden onset, cold and high fever, body temperature up to 39 ° C ~ 40 ° C, often accompanied by headache, muscle and joint pain throughout the body, extreme fatigue, loss of appetite and other systemic symptoms, often have sore throat, dry cough, nasal congestion, runny nose and so on. If there is no complication, the body temperature gradually resolves after 3 to 4 days of illness, and the systemic symptoms improve, but cough and physical recovery often take 1 to 2 weeks. Mild flu is similar to the common cold, the symptoms are mild, 2 to 3 days can be relieved, moderate to severe influenza usually progresses quickly, in the short term, high fever, cough, breathing difficulties progressively aggravated, need to seek medical attention in time, take measures to curb the progression of the disease. The most common complication of influenza is pneumonia, and other complications include nervous system damage, heart damage, myositis, rhabdomyolysis syndrome, and septic shock.
What is the difference between influenza and the common cold?
Colds, can be caused by a variety of viruses, mycoplasma and a small number of bacteria, its main feature is that the pathogen is complex and diverse, each episode can be caused by different pathogens, a person can suffer from colds many times a year, generally there are no obvious systemic symptoms, mainly local symptoms, cough, sneezing, runny nose, nasal congestion and other symptoms. There are no symptoms of high fever and poisoning, no seasonality, and are sporadic.
Influenza is completely different, the pathogen is a unique influenza virus, its prevalence generally occurs in winter and spring, and it will not occur multiple times a year. Its biggest feature is fast onset, strong contagiousness, high incidence, symptoms are generally fierce, patients often have cold and high fever, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint pain and other systemic symptoms, when serious, patients will also be complicated by pneumonia, myocarditis, and even cause death.
So how can it be prevented?
The first is to develop good personal hygiene habits, wash hands frequently, prevent diseases from entering the mouth; open windows and ventilate frequently, keep indoor air fresh, and avoid going to crowd gathering places during peak epidemic periods. Strengthen physical exercise, enhance physical fitness, pay attention to rest, sleep adequately, avoid excessive fatigue, eat a balanced diet, and drink more water.
The second is influenza vaccination: annual influenza vaccination is the most effective measure to prevent influenza, and the elderly, children and people with low immunity with chronic diseases should be vaccinated in time.
The third is drug prevention: drug prevention can not replace vaccination, but can only be used as an emergency temporary preventive measure for people at high risk of severe influenza who have not been vaccinated or have not yet acquired immunity after vaccination. Oseltamivir, zanamivir, etc. can be used.
Contributed by: Ding Xiaofang, Department of Clinical Laboratory, Second People's Hospital of Hunan Province (Hunan Brain Hospital).
Editor: Liu Yuchen
Image: From the Internet, intrusion and deletion