What can you say about influenza?!
Question:
What can you say about influenza?
what is the proper treatment for this,and what is the prevention
Answers:
Influenza is a viral disease, not bacterial as the first answerer suggests. Prevention is the annual vaccine that is widely publicized. You must get the vaccine every year because influenza makes small and large changes to itself that often render previous immunity irrelevant. That said, I do not take the vaccine either. It is usually in short supply and I am a reasonably healthy person, so I don't need it just yet, and I very rarely get the flu. However, it is strongly recommended for certain people, including the elderly and those with other health problems, especially the immunocompromised, as the flu can be very serious in those populations.
Most of the time, treatment is symptomatic--Tylenol or equivalent for pain and fever, nausea medication, soup, sleep. For more serious cases, there are a couple of anti-virals out there. Oseltamivir (Tamiflu) is a good one for the yearly influenza. Relenza is another. There are more and more reports of avian flu isolates that are resistant to these, however. If you have a sick person in your home, you could also take either drug as a preventative approach for the seasonal flu. Unlike with a vaccine, though, when the drugs are out of your system, you can still get infected. There is not a long-lasting preventative effect.