10:00 Dose of Fluology: What Influenza Is, and Is Not.

What Influenza Is, and Is Not.

Red-nosed, Miserable Person (sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough): "I have the flu."

Pale, Shaky, Greenish person (*redacted for grossness*): "I have the stomach flu."

Feverish, Pale, Person Speaking from Their Bed (deep, often productive cough): "I have the flu."

We've probably heard all of these presentations, but only one of these people is probably correct.  Influenza is a viral respiratory infection, and causes damage to the upper and lower respiratory tract.  That would be nose, throat, trachea, bronchi, and lungs, for anyone keeping score.  Upper tract infections (head colds) usually involve the nose, throat, and occasionally trachea, but are typically are not due to influenza virus.  Similarly, influenza is not a gastrointestinal illness.  It can cause GI symptoms, mind you, but if your problem consists exclusively of vomiting and diarrhea, you do not have the flu.  A flu shot would not have helped prevent the illness of patient #1 or Patient #2, but more on that at 12:00.

Person #3 is the likely flu patient.  Person #3 is at high risk for complications, and has a non-negligible chance of death from their illness.  This is why the flu is spoken about with such seriousness by healthcare workers.  

Person #1 and Person #2 do not have influenza.  Both of them have an excellent chance of recovering.  

Often people do not seem overly concerned about the flu.  This is because, in many cases, we as a population consider all 3 people to be "flu patients".  If we all recognized that the very, very sick person is the only flu patient, and is pretty representative of all flu patients, perhaps we would be more worried about it.  Influenza is not a trivial illness.  However, what we think of as "the flu" is far too inclusive.  Whenever you hear "flu", think of Person #3, not 1 or 2.

 Stage set for further discussion~