Popularly known as flu, influenza is a disease that is caused by a virus. It mainly affects the nose, throat, windpipe, bronchial tubes, and lungs. And of all the contagious diseases, influenza is one of the most easily spread from one person to another. There are different kinds of influenza viruses; some cause only a mild illness, others can make a person extremely sick.

Influenza is so contagious and the virus is widely present that huge number of people can be affected at a time. In some epidemics, millions of people in one part of a country may get the disease within just a few weeks’ time. The two main viruses of influenza are called Influenza A virus  and Influenza B virus.

Scientists who study contagious diseases can tell when and where epidemics of influenza can be expected to break out. For instance, if there is an epidemic of influenza in Europe or Asia, these scientists can usually guess when the disease will strike the United States, and what part of the country will be hit hardest. Scienstists can also forecast fairly accurately how many people will catch the disease. In some epidemics, one out of three or four children can be expected to get the disease. Luckily, in most cases, the condition is mild, especially if one has been vaccinated beforehand.

Epidemics of influenza don’t come every year. For some peculiar reason, the virus doesn’t attack many people one year but may hit extremely hard another year. But to be safe, people should do their best to prevent the disease each year by getting influenza vaccine injections. Since the condition comes most often in the winter/rainy and early spring, it is wise to get your flu shot late in the fall.

How would you know if it’s a flu?

Here are some of the symptoms of influenza:

1. Fever. In some cases it may go as high as 40°C. Fever should be attended immediately because it may lead to seizure.
2. Marked aches and pains in the muscles and joints throughout the body, especially in the back and thighs and legs.
3. A runny nose with discharge of tubes as well.
4. Cough, with the bringing up of yellow or greenish mucus.
5. Weakness and tiredness with lack of pep and energy and a strong desire just to lie in bed and do nothing, not even to look at television.
6. Headache, and sometimes a sick- to-the-stomach feeling.
7. When the doctor has a blood count mucus from the throat and bronchial taken, it is usually found that there are fewer than the normal number of white blood cells.

The severe symptoms of influenza may last for upto five to six days, but it may take another couple of weeks before the patient begins to feel normal again. During the time that a person is sick, a patient with influenza should be kept away from friends and family members, because influenza is again, contagious. The disease is transmitted by coughing or sneezing. It is therefore important to teach everyone with the flu, and also those who just have a simple cold, to cover his mouth when he coughs and to cover his nose when he sneezes!

Most youngsters recover from influenza without complications, but here are few things to do to make sure everything goes well:

1. Stay in bed until temperature is stable to normal for three days.
2. Aspirin, or a similar medicine, should be taken to relieve the aches and pains, and to help bring down the temperature to normal. **Aspirin should not be taken by people with bleeding disorders.
3. Large amounts of water, fruit juices, and other liquids should be taken. This will help to flush the poison from the influenza virus out of the body and will aid in getting rid of the fever. And remember, water is the most effective thermoregulator of the body.
4. Room temperature should be comfortably warm and the air in the bedroom should be moist. This will help the patient to bring up the mucus when he coughs.
5. If coughing is severe, a cough medicine is given. Consult a doctor to know what type of cough medicine is appropriate to the condition.
6. In order to prevent complications like an ear infection or pneumonia, antibiotic medicines should be given. Unfortunately, antibiotics aren’t that recommended not unless it is caused by bacteria.

Of course, it is smarter to prevent influenza than to cure it once it has infected a child. Remember, prevention is always better than cure. To do this, doctors recommend that children to be given influenza vaccine. The vaccine should be given a month or two before the epidemic is expected to strike. It would be nice if the vaccine always worked, but it is thought that it protects against influenza in only about seven out of ten people who take the shots. But the three who get influenza anyway, even though they received the vaccine, will probably get mild cases. Resistance is also a factor.

Children who are allergic to eggs cannot be given flu vaccine, because the vaccine is manufactured by growing it in chicken eggs. Therefore, if they were given the vaccine, they would get an allergic reaction. Many doctors think it is wise to keep children who have not received the vaccine, because of their allergy, home from school during an influenza epidemic.