Influenza -The evil of the good guys and gals
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The word flu comes from the Italian influenza (influence, it was believed that there was an influence in the air) or from the German grupi (to huddle) which became grippe in French). Nowadays, the media are increasing the scares by counting the cases of patients with influenza. Influenza is a respiratory disease of infectious origin that not only affects mankind, but also other mammals and birds.
The virus is an incomplete being, it only has nucleic acids and some other substances, so it must get into the cells of organisms to be able to develop completely, even reproduce. In the case of the influenza virus, it is of RNA origin or type belonging to the Orthomyxoviridae family. There are five types of Orthomyxoviruses: Influenza A, Influenza B, Influenza C, Isavirus, Togotovirus.
Influenza virus type A is divided according to serotypes that are determined according to reactions with certain types of antibodies with which they are contacted in laboratory tests, there are sera to determine substances such as hemagglutinin (H) and for neuraminidase.
There are several serotypes of each one and they are accompanied by a number: in birds H has 16 subtypes and N has 9 subtypes, while in mankind H has 3 subtypes and N has 2 subtypes. Each virus has more than four thousand amino acids.
The 1918 "Spanish" flu and the 2009 "cochineal" flu were caused by H1N1 viruses. U.S. scientist Jeffery Taubenberger has determined that the 1918 virus is not the same as the 2009 virus, in that it has had alterations in an average of twenty-eight amino acids.
Other Influenza type A viruses that have been important are: H2N2 Asian flu in 1957, H3N2 Hong Kong flu in 1968, H5N1 pandemic of 2007-2008,
Influenza enters through the respiratory tract, which is why it must be taken into account that in order to avoid it, it is necessary to keep a distance from the sick person (one and a half meters on average so that the Flügge droplets -small drops of saliva when talking, coughing or sneezing- do not come into contact with these tracts). The defenses are important to face them, any basic disease makes the person vulnerable to the virus. In the tropics it can occur especially in rainy seasons and in temperate zones especially in winter.
The person affected by influenza feels general malaise, fever with chills, pain in joints and muscles, spontaneous sore throat or when swallowing (odynophagia), obstruction and clear nasal discharge (rhinorrhea), sneezing, headache due to nasal congestion, tearing and productive cough (in case of bronchopulmonary disease), pain in the chest or back in case of pneumonia.
If you have the flu, you should go to the doctor, do not expose yourself to cold and do not consume cold drinks or food. You should wrap up warm (to avoid the cold), take food and liquids (not cold), antitussives. For the removal of pain, discomfort and fever should be administered analgesics-antipyretics.
Treatment with specific antivirals for the influenza virus has proven to be successful. Neuramidase inhibitors are available, the most popular being osletamivir (tamiflu) which is derived from star anise. Zanamidir (Relenza) is another antiviral antibiotic. The amadantan drugs (M2 inhibitors), amantadine and rimantadine, are less certain of cure.
Flu disease tend to be common during cold season. This flu disease is a respiratory disease that has almost all the sign and symptoms of covid19. Note it is very different from covid19 disease, once we have the various signs and symptoms listed above let us visit the hospital for proper diagnosis and avoid self medication. Most people administer self medication because they believed it is cheaper in term of cost but the side effects is very great that we might end up spending double of the money we are avoiding at the initial stage and if not careful it might lead to death.