The annual South African influenza season was off to a more severe than usual start, a researcher at the Institute for Virology in Sandton said on Monday.
Dr Terry Besselaar said some years were worse than others, and this year’s flu epidemic was already more severe than that of recent years.
”Some years are mild. In other years more virulent strains of flu catch people without the right antibodies.”
Besselaar said the most common virus this year was Influenza A, subtype HRN2. In common with other flu infections, this strain left one ”pretty ill” for a week, followed by patients feeling very tired and unwell for a few weeks more.
Flu season generally lasted from June to August. But it could start as early as May and linger as late as October. The US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) warns that the flu, is a contagious disease that attacks the respiratory tract — the nose, throat and lungs — in humans.
The CDC says most people who get influenza will recover in one to two weeks, but some people will develop life-threatening complications — such as pneumonia.
In the US, about 10 to 20% of the population get the flu each year. No such statistics for South Africa were available but the percentage was ”probably roughly the same,” Besselaar said.
The flu is spread, or transmitted, when a person who has the flu coughs, sneezes, or speaks and sends the virus into the air and other people inhale it.
The virus enters the nose, throat, or lungs of a person and begins to multiply, causing the symptoms of influenza.
Sometimes the flu spreads when a person touches a surface that has flu viruses on it — a door handle, for instance — and then touches his or her nose or mouth.
A person can spread the flu starting one day before he or she feels sick. Adults can continue to pass the flu virus to others for another three to seven days after symptoms start. – Sapa