Flu is an infection
Flu is an acute infection of the upper respiratory tract (nose, throat, lungs) and is caused by the influenza virus. Officially, there is also talk of influenza. Flu is a disease in which the mucous membrane in the respiratory tract is inflamed. It often starts suddenly with chills, fever headaches and muscle aches. Characteristic is the fever, which can reach within 12 hours up to 39 Â °c or higher. The fever often lasts 3 to 5 days. Complaints such as sore throats and dry coughs may also occur. Full recovery takes 1 to 3 weeks.
The virus damages the tissues of the lungs to cause acute bronchitis or pneumonia. You must have a strong and healthy body, to repel the flu. Some people are weakened by old age or by chronic diseases like diabetes, heart and kidney disease or asthma. With them, an infection can demand too much energy. These people are susceptible to an infection by a bacterium on top of the damage that the flu virus already wreaks. In These situations, flu can be fatal. This is also the reason that many older people get the flu shot, so they will not get some forms of this disease. However, a flu shot is not a guarantee for not getting the flu.
A healthy person can suffer a great deal of nuisance from influenza and therefore have been eliminated from work and social life for a while. People with diabetes will need to measure more often (and insulin syringes) because blood sugar is higher than normal.
Google tries to detect flu trends by analyzing search around the flu. Click here to see the current flu trend.