How to Tell If You Have the Flu
You are coughing. You sob. You think you can feel the temperature approaching. This is a bad flu year – every year seems like a bad flu year – and therefore you fear the worst. But is it really the flu?
Influenza – Influenza, technically speaking, is a virus that causes many of the same vague painful symptoms as colds and other infections. These include fever, cough, runny nose, headache, fatigue, etc. There are many cold viruses, but they usually do not cause fever or body aches, and symptoms tend to appear gradually. (Sick right now? Getting hung up on this CDC difference table .)
Influenza also has nothing to do with “stomach flu”, which is just a nickname for any illness that causes vomiting and diarrhea. You can get these symptoms with real flu, but they are like a side dish where coughing, fever, and body aches are the main food.
One convenient rule of thumb is that cough plus fever in a community where the flu is already circulating equals about 80% of flu cases , says Dr. Pat Salber , an emergency room physician in San Francisco.
To determine if you really have the flu, your doctor can do a test: either a rapid test while you’re in the office (although they may have a high false positive rate ), or a laboratory-confirmed test that requires you to wait a day or two for results. Most of us will not pass the test: if the flu spreads and our symptoms seem to be correct, we will be told that we have the flu and need to rest. The tests are useful for people at high risk, such as the elderly.
Call (or video call) the doctor, okay?
There is no great cure for the flu for a healthy adult; You can rest, and for a few days, maybe a week, you will feel like death, and then everything will be all right. But seeking help is not useless. If you have a severe case, you may need help to keep your symptoms from getting worse. And if you have been told that you have the flu, but you continue to be ill, immediately go to the emergency room – a girl recently died when her flu-like symptoms turned out to be a more dangerous infection.
Dr. Salber says that in California, where emergency departments are now crammed with the flu, hospitals are asking people to call first. If you don’t have the flu, you can save time by visiting a hospital with the flu. And if you do , the diagnosis is often simple enough to be made over the phone. Video sessions (usually around $ 40) are also a great way to get a doctor’s opinion on whether you really need to seek help in person, and many health plans offer a nurse a free hotline for such questions.
Elderly people, women who are pregnant or have other reasons of increased risk should seek immediate medical attention. If your doctor can prescribe you a dose of an antiviral drug, such as Tamiflu, within the first 48 hours, your condition may become slightly shorter or slightly less severe. Tamiflu doesn’t actually work very well, so there is little benefit from it, but it can prevent a severe flu case from turning into a life-threatening case.
There are several versions of the flu virus, and some become more popular every season than others. The most common influenza virus this year is the H3N2 virus, which has not been seen in recent years. This means that children are especially at risk: their immune systems have never encountered this type of virus, while adults.
My children’s daycare recently wrote to parents that because of this, doctors in our area are recommending that we seek immediate help for young children if they need Tamiflu. Only they made a mistake in the letter and said that Theraflu was the decisive medicine. Please note that teraflu is an over-the-counter cough medicine and does not replace getting medical care for a sick child.