Flu symptoms in adults

Flu symptoms in adults- different faces of the same disease

In the last years more and more people complain from flu symptoms and every year new vaccines are elaborated. People started to be very worried about flu symptoms in adults especially after the outbreaks of avian flu and AH1N1 virus, even if the “common” flu virus could cause death too. Because of the large number of people vaccinated, contradictory opinions about the efficiency and possible complications coming from the vaccination began to appear  and the result was that many people refused the vaccine.
People also searched for ways to strengthen the immunity system and they choose to use different types of medication based on plants. In clinical practice, because of the large number of patients that died even if they had no risk factors associated, doctors started to treat pneumonia with antiviral and antibiotic medication. But the more the antiviral medication is used, the more the risk of developing resistance to this treatment increases.

Next we will talk about flu symptoms in adults and its complication.

Why are we so concerned about flu symptoms in adults? For many of us, flu is just a common disease; we all had it at some point and as some use to say it lasts 7 days if you treated or one week if you don’t. But are flu symptoms in adults so insignificant that doesn’t worth talking about? This is a false idea among us that flu symptoms in adults are common manifestations. The truth is that in some people flu symptoms in adults can be as devastating as cancer or heart disease.
The main flu symptoms in adults:

• fever-some wrongly believe that fever is determined only by bacterial infection. It is a wrong idea, both viruses and bacteria can determine high fever and they can disseminate to other organs through blood,
• shivers- the feeling of body shaking
• sweating-the body tries to lose some water in order to decrease the temperature,
• headaches
• rhinorhea-water discharge from the nose as we call it
• cough-first it can start as a dry cough, but  in a few days expectoration can appear, considering that even viral infection can determine a secondary bacterial infection,
• sore throat with pains that increase while trying to swallow
• severe aches and pains in muscle and joints
• generalized weakness and fatigue, feeling the need of lying down,
• being unable to eat,
• nausea and vomiting.

Flu symptoms in adults usually last a few days (about a week), but in some cases other complication can occur:

• pneumonia- a flu symptom in adults that seems simple to deal, can  get complicated with a lower respiratory tract infection like pneumonia. In patient with reduced immunity as are those suffering from AIDS, these infections can be fatal, even if for many of us it can be a common disorder.
• invasion of the virus in other organs through blood flow, which leads to a condition called septicemia, one of the worst flu symptoms in adults and an important threat to patient’s life,
• meningitis-if the viruses reach the nervous system, they can determine meningitis, which is an infection of the tissues layers that cover the brain and are called meninges.
• shortness of breath or fast breathing, bluish skin color (the blood hasn’t enough oxygen)
• neurologic symptoms: dizziness, drowsiness, confusion
• fulminant myocarditis
• pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the pulmonary arteries) seems to be linked to the infection determined by AH1N1 virus,

Complications are more common in people suffering from respiratory, cardiac disease obesity and of course, those with diminished immunity (like patients with AIDS).
As we saw, flu symptoms in adults can be common or can be very serious, depending of the aggressiveness of the virus, the immunity system of the host, the risk factors associated, but it is important to remember that it can be fatal (about 40.000 people died every year, in USA, in the past 20 years, because of the flu).