Protecting Yourself from the Flu: Symptoms, Treatment, and Prevention

The flu begins with a sharp rise in temperature

Source: Alexander Oshchepkov / NGS.RU

In Russia, in addition to the terrible mycoplasma pneumonia, the influenza virus is quietly circulating. People fall ill with entire families, falling with a temperature of 40. How not to catch this insidious virus, how to treat it and why antibiotics will only make things worse – in the material of our Volgograd colleagues from V1.RU.

“The thermometer gets hot in a minute.”

One of our readers spoke honestly about how she suffered from the flu this winter. According to her, the child brought the virus from school. It all started with him, then the parents fell ill one after another.

— On the first day of illness, the temperature rises sharply, without warning. Up to 39–40 degrees. The whole body is burning, but antipyretics do not help,” said the reader. — The temperature drops for 2–3 hours and rises again. Constantly shivering and freezing. Numerous goosebumps run throughout the body every now and then. And, as luck would have it, all this happens on Sunday. That is, on a day off! In the evening. We were immediately given some kind of test and diagnosed with influenza A.

The woman said that on the first day the disease did not affect her. In caring for the child, she did not even notice that she herself had already developed a fever, while knowing that the baby had the flu, the family did not start taking preventive antiviral drugs.

— By the evening of the first day, my throat begins to hurt very much, my nose and eyes become inflamed. The night passes again with a fever. I force myself to drink a lot. Before bed, I brewed a thermos with tea and raspberries (it seemed to make me feel better). I drank everything during the night. After a warm drink, it becomes a little easier,” she continues. — At the clinic, all the doctors quarreled because of us. Allegedly, it is impossible to officially diagnose “flu”.

Chills, sore throat, runny nose – these could all be symptoms of the flu.

Source: Alexey Volkhonsky / V1.RU

After taking antiviral drugs prescribed by a competent specialist, according to our reader, she and her child felt better, but new symptoms were added to the chills and intoxication.

— On the second day of illness, the temperature was soaring again, but this time it was not so high. Still, they took antipyretics, antivirals, and washed their nose. A runny nose and a strong cough began,” said the flu patient. — Colleagues advised me to start taking antibiotics. I thought about it. Continued taking antiviral medications.

The body temperature stopped rising on the fourth day of illness. However, all other symptoms persisted.

“We are still coughing, we are still very weak,” the woman said. — My nose stuffs up very much, so much so that I have to constantly use drops. They immediately offered to hospitalize me, but I refused. I talked to the doctors.

“To be honest, they scared me to death. You’re already lying there with a temperature of under 40, and they’re also telling you that the virus is fatal and that there will be complications.”

reader V1.RU

– There is no need to scare people to death, help them recover.

The temperature lasts for several days

Source: Artem Ustyuzhanin / MSK1.RU

“Under no circumstances should you stuff yourself with antibiotics without prescription”

At the same time, doctors are confident that there is only one way to protect yourself from the flu – vaccination. However, even if the patient has a confirmed diagnosis of influenza, it is not necessary to immediately require hospitalization. Associate Professor of the Department of Internal Diseases of Volgograd State Medical University, general practitioner Irina Tyshchenko spoke about this.

— You need to be hospitalized when complications develop. In particular, disorders of the respiratory system,” said Irina Tyshchenko, associate professor of the department of internal diseases of Volgograd State Medical University. — You can treat the flu at home, but you must follow your doctor’s instructions. Mild infections can be treated at home. However, I note that before treating the flu, you need to get laboratory confirmation that it is the flu. Now, in addition to coronavirus and influenza, there are a huge number of other acute respiratory viral infections.

General practitioner Irina Tyshchenko said that the flu can be identified by its symptoms: severe intoxication, severe headache, a sharp rise in temperature to 40 degrees, chills, nasal congestion and sore throat.

– Treatment itself includes taking antiviral drugs, alleviating the symptoms of the disease – taking antipyretics, using throat sprays, lozenges, nasal drops. All this is prescribed by the doctor! Under no circumstances should you self-medicate and, moreover, immediately start taking antibiotics. Remember, during the coronavirus pandemic, antibiotics disappeared from the shelves of pharmacies “Amoxiclav“? People started buying it en masse. Taking antibacterial drugs indiscriminately and in such quantities will lead to the fact that current infections cannot be defeated with antibiotics. The pathogens will simply become resistant to them, Irina Tyshchenko is sure. — Now the development of antibacterial drugs is not as fast as it was after the discovery of penicillin. Who knows how long it will take for people to learn to treat new mixed infections that are becoming more and more resistant to microbes and pathogens.

“The virus jumps from animals to humans”

The influenza virus wiped out a huge number of people many years ago. According to Professor Mikhail Statsenko, then the virus, just like Covid, killed young and healthy people.

— All over the world, many more people died from the influenza virus and the Spanish flu than in the First World War. People were very afraid of this “blue death”. The virus was causing a cytokine storm,” said Mikhail Statsenko, head of the Department of Internal Diseases of Volgograd State Medical University. – People died. About 100 million people died from this flu. This is more than in the two worst wars of the 20th century.

The cytokine storm also occurred during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic. According to Mikhail Statsenko, speaking very simply, in non-medical terms and categories, during a cytokine storm, all systems and organs without exception become inflamed.

The virus has learned to jump from animals to people

Source: City portals

At the same time, the story goes that the virus disappeared exactly as quickly as it appeared. Mikhail Statsenko draws parallels between coronavirus and influenza, seeing similarities in them.

— Spanish flu is swine flu. The virus was very scary, evil, approximately 90% of the population was infected. Due to this infectiousness, we have such terrible mortality figures. He mowed down the sick, he mowed down the young. They died from a cytokine storm, just like with the coronavirus,” the scientist said. “But both the coronavirus and the influenza virus are zoonotic. That is, the virus simply jumps from animal to human. A week ago, a new disease was discussed in Davos – disease X. Perhaps this disease will be caused by the bird flu virus. There are already cases of this disease being registered. They already exist in Russia and in the Volgograd region.

According to Mikhail Statsenko, outbreaks of bird flu are being recorded all over the world.

“Epidemiologists know about this; outbreaks of the virus are extinguished with the help of anti-epidemic measures,” the scientist is sure. “But I want to say that people understand the danger of these viruses, they understand the need for quarantine measures. Several new infectious diseases hospitals have opened in our region, with separate wards, and we are training strong infectious disease doctors. We realized that there is such a problem and we need to fight it, but in no case should we panic.

2024-01-26 06:45:00

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