Influenza Overview
Influenza, or flu, is a respiratory infection caused by a variety of flu viruses. The most familiar aspect of the flu is the way it can knock you off your feet as it sweeps through entire communities the most common and characteristic symptoms of influenza in humans are fever, sore throat, muscle pains, severe headache, coughing, weakness and fatigue. A cold or the stomach flu are very different from a flu. Influenza can be far more severe than the common cold and can even lead to death. Influenza and the common cold are caused by very different viruses. Flu rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics, killing millions of people in pandemic years and hundreds of thousands in nonpandemic years. It creates health care costs and lost productivity
Type A - Most common and usually causes most serious epidemics.
Type B - Can cause epidemics, generally is milder than type A.
Type C - Viruses, never have been connected with a large epidemic.
If you get infected by the flu virus, you will usually feel symptoms 1 to 4 days later. You can spread the flu to others before your symptoms start and for another 3 to 4 days after your symptoms appear. The symptoms start very quickly and may include
Body aches - Chills - Dry cough - Fever
Headache - Sore throat - Stuffy nose
It is estimated that annually - 36,000 people in the United States die from complications related to seasonal flu. The Federal government (CDC) has stated that it is not a matter of “IF” it will happen, but “WHEN” it will happen. We could be facing another pandemic of epic proportions similar to our recent past.
1918 SPANISH FLU - Killed 50 to 100 million people worldwide, including about 500,000 people in the United States. 1957 ASIAN FLU AND 1969 HONG KONG FLU - Killed nearly 2 million people combined. For more history Click Here
