The Different Types of Flus that You Should Know About

The Different Types of Flus that You Should Know About

 

Flu, or influenza season is fast approaching, as a parent, you should familiarize yourself with the different types of flus you and your child might catch this season. Whether it is just the old regular seasonal flu or a new strain of the flu virus, you should know what actions to take to ensure the safety of your family.

Thousands of people are hospitalised because of flu each year in Australia alone, and hundreds of those die from it. By preparing your family, you reduce your risk by huge percentage. By knowing what to do, you avoid the chance of you or your family falling victim to a severe flu case.

Here are some of the most common type of flus, how they spread, and what actions you could do to avoid them.

Seasonal Flu

Seasonal influenza is the most common type of flu. This type of flu results to about 200,000 individuals being hospitalised every year in the U.S., and kills about 3,000 to 50,000 annually in the U.S. alone.

In adults, it usually lasts for about a week without doing any treatment, as it typically goes away on its own. On the other hand, children, pregnant women, and elderlies are the most vulnerable to its complications which include headaches, fever, sore throat, cough, and runny nose. The good news is that by getting proper vaccines, or by washing your hands frequently, the chance for the virus to spread diminishes, thus preventing you from acquiring flu.

If you contract this, you might want to stay at home to prevent spreading it to your friends and co-workers. Nasal spray for sinus may help reduce symptoms.

H1N1 Flu

H1N1 influenza first surfaced in 2009, causing a pandemic that killed about 12,000 people. It continues to return each year and is now considered a seasonal flu.

Unlike common seasonal flus, this type of flu affects adults harder, usually showing more complications. It can be prevented by a vaccine developed for it, which offers fairly good protection from most versions of the H1N1 virus. You could also prevent from acquiring it through good hygiene, and good rest is recommended if infected by this virus.

Bird Flu

Bird Flu, or avian flu, came from birds infected with a new strain of influenza. A variant of bird flu, H5N1, which killed a Canadian woman last year from her visit to China. It continually infects people yearly, although transmission is relatively low, it has infected more than 650 people in Asia and Middle East since it surfaced in 2003.

This type of flu usually comes from being around infected birds, and can’t be caught by eating cooked infected birds. Contracting this virus usually results to fever and cough, with a possibility of difficulty in breathing. Since this virus doesn’t easily spread, you should only take extreme caution when travelling to countries with outbreaks.

Other Variants Flus

Other types of flus, such as swine flu, which comes from pigs, could infect humans. These are called variant flus and are quite rare and harder to contract than most flus, although basic protection and hygiene should still be practiced, especially if you work around animals. Symptoms are usually similar to seasonal flus.

If ever you contract any of these flus, you have to take extreme caution not to infect other family members, especially children. Long rest is recommended to avoid it, while pain relievers and nasal sprays for sinus could help with the symptoms.

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