Flu
Flu is not a bad cold but a different infection with a different character altogether. A cold creeps up on you: the throat prickles today, the nose runs…
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Medicines commonly prescribed for Flu
For informational purposes only. Always consult a doctor before using any medicine.
Dosage form: ORAL SOLUTION/SUSPENSION, 100 mg paracetamol/ mlActive substance: paracetamolManufacturer: Laboratorios Ern S.A.Prescription not requiredDosage form: TABLET, 1000 mgActive substance: paracetamolManufacturer: Laboratorios Normon S.A.Prescription not requiredDosage form: ORAL SOLUTION/SUSPENSION, 1 g paracetamolActive substance: paracetamolManufacturer: Pharmex Advanced Laboratories S.L.Prescription not required
Flu is not a bad cold but a different infection with a different character altogether. A cold creeps up on you: the throat prickles today, the nose runs tomorrow, a cough turns up the day after, and life carries on much as usual. Flu knocks you down within hours, and people who have had it can name the time it started. For most, it ends with a week at home and a fortnight of lingering weakness, but in some it turns severe, and recognising the warning signs in time makes a great deal of difference.
Telling flu from a cold
Only a test can draw the line with certainty, but the two look quite different from the outside.
- The onset. A cold builds over a day or two; flu comes down on you within hours.
- The fever. With flu it is high from the start, with shivering, and lasts three or four days; with a cold there is often none at all.
- Where it hurts. A cold sits in the nose and throat. Flu hits the whole body: muscles and joints ache, the head throbs, and the eyes sting when you look sideways.
- Your strength. With a cold most people can still work. With flu the first days are spent lying down and nothing more is possible, which is the most honest difference of the lot.
- The cough. In flu it is dry and wearing, starts early and outlasts every other symptom, sometimes by weeks.
In children the picture is similar, though earache, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea are added more often, and the youngest simply go quiet and refuse food. In older people it goes the other way: the fever may be modest while weakness, confusion and the flaring of long-standing illnesses come to the front, so flu at that age is easy to miss.
What to do at home
For most people there is no treatment that cuts flu short, nor any need for one: the body manages, and our job is to make its work easier without doing harm.
- Lie down, especially in the first days, rather than pushing through on your feet. Return to normal activity gradually once the fever has settled.
- Drink plenty: water, weak tea, broth, diluted juice. The simple guide is that your urine should stay pale.
- For fever and aching, paracetamol or ibuprofen will do. Do not take plain paracetamol and a cold-and-flu sachet together: almost every such mixture contains paracetamol, an overdose builds up unnoticed, and it is dangerous for the liver. For children the dose goes by weight rather than age and should be checked against the leaflet.
- Children and teenagers are not given aspirin, because in viral infections it is linked to a rare but severe injury to the liver and brain. For adults it is not the best choice in flu either.
- Antibiotics have no effect on a virus. They are needed only when a bacterial complication has developed on top of the flu, and that is the doctor's call.
- Warm drinks and gargles soothe the throat, and a saline rinse eases the nose. There is no need to chase the temperature down to the last decimal: you treat how the person feels, not the number on the thermometer.
A pharmacist can suggest something over the counter and check that it does not clash with your regular medication, which is far from a formality if you take treatment for blood pressure, the heart, glaucoma or depression.
When waiting is not an option
Call an ambulance, on the single European number 112 where it applies, or go straight to emergency care if an adult develops:
- breathlessness at rest, difficulty finishing a sentence, fast shallow breathing;
- chest pain or tightness;
- blue or grey lips and face;
- confusion, slurred speech, deep drowsiness from which they are hard to rouse;
- fainting or a fit;
- coughing up a lot of blood;
- inability to drink, vomiting that carries on for a day, no urine passed;
- a rash that does not fade when pressed with a clear glass.
In children the warning signs are different: the spaces between the ribs and the hollow above the breastbone drawing in with each breath, grunting breathing, flaring nostrils, pale or mottled skin, a child who is limp, not responding as usual and hard to wake, a nappy that stays dry for many hours, or a bulging or sunken fontanelle in a baby. A baby in the first months of life with a high temperature should always be seen.
Remember the second wave as well: the person improves, the fever falls, and a day or two later it climbs again, the shivering returns, the cough turns wet and it hurts to breathe in on one side. That is usually how bacterial pneumonia after flu announces itself, and it should not be watched at home. It is better not to drive yourself to emergency care: ask someone to take you or call an ambulance, and bring the list of your medicines.
Who is most at risk, and when antivirals are needed
Severe illness is commoner in pregnancy and in the weeks after birth, in young children, in older people, in those with long-term lung or heart disease, diabetes, kidney or liver disease, obesity, or neurological conditions that make coughing difficult, and in anyone whose immune system is weakened by illness or treatment. People without a spleen belong in the same group.
Antiviral medicines for flu exist precisely for them. They work only at the very beginning: they are prescribed within the first forty-eight hours of symptoms, and later there is little point. These are prescription drugs with noticeable side effects, so buying them on your own just in case is unwise, since for a healthy adult they shorten the illness by roughly a day and that does not justify the risk. Someone in a risk group, on the other hand, should contact a doctor on the first day of illness rather than wait to see whether things worsen.
Keeping it from spreading
Flu passes in droplets produced by coughing, sneezing and talking, and also by way of hands and surfaces, where the virus survives for about a day. A person becomes infectious before the first symptoms appear and stays so for roughly a week, longer in children and in those with weakened immunity.
So: stay at home while you have a fever and for a further day after it settles without fever medicines; cough and sneeze into a tissue or the crook of your elbow rather than your palm; bin the tissue at once; wash your hands with soap more often than usual, especially before eating and on coming home; air the room. If an older person, a baby or someone with a serious long-term illness lives with you, it is sensible to wear a mask and to keep cups and towels separate.
The flu vaccine
Vaccination remains the most reliable way of avoiding a severe illness. The virus changes, which is why the composition is reviewed every year and the jab is repeated annually, ideally before the season starts, since protection takes about two weeks to build.
The vaccine cannot give you flu, as it contains no live virus able to multiply. The usual reaction amounts to a sore arm, mild aching and a slightly raised temperature for a day or two. It is not a hundred per cent guarantee against catching flu, but it markedly lowers the risk of hospital admission and of dying, and those vaccinated have an easier time of it.
It is recommended first of all for older people, for pregnant women at any stage, for young children, for those with long-term conditions, for healthcare workers and for anyone living with a vulnerable person. The exact age limits, the groups offered it free and the timing of the campaign differ from country to country, so check the national immunisation schedule. In pregnancy the vaccine is not only safe but also protects the baby through the first months of life, while the baby is still too young to be vaccinated.
Online consultation
The essentials sort themselves out well at a distance: whether this looks like flu, whether antivirals apply to you given your other conditions and how long you have been ill, and exactly which signs should send you to call an ambulance. The doctor can give safe doses of fever medicines and check them against your regular prescriptions, explain how to help a child and when a child must be seen in person, help with a sick note, and look into the cough that has dragged on since the flu. Questions about the vaccine belong here too: when to have it, whether it is possible during a flare of another illness, and what to do if the season is already under way. The signs listed above, and any deterioration in a baby, are not matters for a screen and need face-to-face care without delay.
This material is for information only and does not replace medical advice.
Consult with a doctor about Flu
Discuss your symptoms and possible next steps with a doctor online.
Online doctors for Flu
Discuss your symptoms and possible next steps for Flu with a doctor online.
