Good home treatment of influenza

About half the people who contract the virus will have typical flu symptoms, and the other half will have very few, if any, symptoms. So, while everyone is susceptible to a new strain, for reasons that we do not understand at present, only half the people exposed get sick.

Another reason pandemic flu is passed so easily from person to person is that people infected with the virus are symptom-free for a day or two after they begin spreading the virus.

Once symptoms begin, adults shed virus for about five days, but children and those with impaired immune systems can do so for up to two weeks.

The most common way to catch the flu is breathing air containing the virus.

Coughing or sneezing is how the virus gets into the air. Flu also can be passed when someone touches someone or something that has living virus on it.

In this case, the illness usually gains access to the body from the hand by mouth, entering through the gut. Under warm and humid conditions, the influenza virus can remain infectious on surfaces like counter tops or doorknobs for a couple of days.

During the winter, it can remain infectious in cold fresh water for up to a month. If you can avoid being around people sick with flu you may delay getting ill.

However, if you are needed to provide care for a sick family member or friend with the virus, this strategy is not practical. Ultimately, most people are likely to be exposed to the virus.

It's just a matter of time.

Wearing latex gloves and an N-95 face mask when caring for the ill and changing your clothes, mask, gloves, and shoes when you leave a sick person's area is a way to protect parts of the house where healthy people live.

In truth, pandemic influenza is so infectious anyone taking care of sick folks in their homes will be exposed repeatedly to the virus no matter what measures they take.

Activities like helping the patient to the bathroom, changing bed linen, and washing soiled clothes, or simply breathing the air in the vicinity of the sick leads to exposure.

Since most people will have one or more sick family members or friends to care for during the pandemic, it is unlikely to avoid being exposed.

Coughing and hand washing etiquette

Two simple but effective suggestions for reducing spread of the virus includes covering your nose and mouth with a tissue or handkerchief when coughing or blowing your nose and washing your hands after having any contact with a sick person.

Coughing or sneezing into your hands is not recommended because then you are liable to spread the virus to anything you touch with them. Instead, if a handkerchief is unavailable, cough or sneeze into the inside of your elbow or the sleeve of your upper arm.

Use soap, water, and a face cloth to wash your hands or you can use the new waterless alcohol gel.

The virtue of cleanliness

To help reduce the presence of virus within the home, keep sick people clean and dry.

The sick rooms, bed clothing and bathrooms need to be maintained in good condition. Ventilation of these areas is important, and if possible, natural light will improve the atmosphere.

Soiled garments and bedclothes need to be washed and dried, a task likely to be challenging if there is an interruption of electrical and water service. It will be important to wash these soiled items in hot water using soap and chlorine bleach if possible.

Drying these items in the sun takes advantage of the powerful antiseptic effect of ultraviolet light. A good clothesline will be an essential item to have on hand.

Hard surfaces should be wiped clean using soap and water, and then sprayed with 1:10 bleach to water solution and wiped down a second time. Allow the bleach solution to stand on the surface for 30 seconds before removing it to help ensure that all the contagion is eliminated.

This technique will effectively remove all trace of infectious viral particles and bacteria from surfaces that come into contact with body fluids, vomit, and excrement.

Signs and Symptoms of Bird Flu

Is it a bad cold or bird flu?

There are several ways to tell the difference between the flu and less severe illnesses.

First of all, unless there are other cases of flu around the area, your illness is probably not flu. Colds, bronchitis, sinusitis, ear infections, and sore throat can lay you low but are less severe.

Flu is a really severe illness compared with these more common conditions. So, the severity of illness is an important clue that the patient indeed has the flu.

Healthy people sick with pandemic flu will be so ill and weak they will have a hard time getting up out of bed without help.

The flu usually begins in the nose with sneezing and a runny nose.

A sore throat, fever, and muscle aches and pains will follow. Over the next day or two, the virus will move into the lung causing cough, more fever, headache, and general weakness.

If the virus gains access to the body through the gut, nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea are likely.

Principal symptoms of influenza

Fever

Everyone with flu will have a fever, which is one of the ways our bodies fight infections.

Virus and bacteria don't grow as well when our body temperatures are higher than normal, and our body's immune system is more active when we have a fever. So, some fever is good for fighting infections.

On the other hand, too much can cause damage and accelerate dehydration. The "best" temperature for balancing the benefits vs.

the deficits is between 100.5°F and 101°F taken orally. If taken rectally, increase the range by ½ degree.

Cough

Almost every patient with influenza develops a cough. A wet cough is one that produces phlegm or mucus while a dry one does not.

Coughing serves several useful purposes. The most important is to help clear the breathing passageways of collections of mucus or other debris that accumulate under conditions of health and disease.

In this case, cough is helpful. On the other hand, when the cough is not due to mucus but instead caused by irritation on the delicate tissue lining the breathing passageways, then coughing can cause damage serving no useful purpose.

The vigorous and intense contraction of the back, abdominal, and rib muscles occurring repeatedly during coughing can bruise or tear them. This leads to pain when taking a breath or when these areas are pressed with the fingers.

Since an excessive dry cough can be harmful, it is the one we want to suppress. On the other hand, our goal is to encourage a wet cough to help the body rid itself of mucus and debris.

In patients with infections of the ears, nose, throat, or sinuses, cough can occur when mucus from these irritated tissues finds its way down into the bronchial passageways.