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Flu facts

The influenza virus is one that strikes regularly and occurs often in people of all ages, races, and creeds. In this article, we'll help to give you a little more knowledge about the virus by sharing some facts about what it is and how it works.

- The influenza virus can cause many symptoms to occur. Among them are fever, headaches, drowsiness, coughing, sore throat, muscle pains and aches, nausea, and diarrhea.

- The influenza virus can be a precursor to other problems, and advanced cases of the flu may result in ear infections, pneumonia, sinus infections, and dehydration.

- While many people do their best to prevent the spreading of flu to others, it can be next to impossible to eliminate the possibility of spreading the virus. That is due to the fact that the ability to infect others with the virus occurs up to a day before you even experience any symptoms. Also, after you feel that the virus is significantly out of your system, you still maintain the ability to infect others for a period of up to five days. For that reason, the influenza virus tends to spread quickly throughout populations.

- One of the few things that you can do to prevent yourself from coming down with the flu when flu season comes around is to get vaccinated. Vaccines must be taken annually, and it is recommended that you get your flu shot sometime between October and November so that you are best suited to deal with the season.

- The flu strikes a large part of the population every year. Statistics place the number of affected peoples by the flu per year in the United States at being between five and twenty percent of the total population. This results in over two hundred thousand annual visits to the hospital due to flu complications and over thirty six thousand deaths.

- There are actually three different types of the influenza virus. They are known as influenzavirus A, influenzavirus B, and influenzavirus C. The influenza virus strain that is most threatening to humans is influenzavirus A.

- One new method of vaccination that is gaining in popularity is the use of a nasal spray vaccination. By breathing in a liquid spray, one can become vaccinated from the current flu strain with no need for an injection. This vaccine works by allowing a weakened form of the flu virus into the body so that your body can develop immunities to the current strain.

- When it comes to getting over the flu, there is no sure-fire solution, but the recommended method of treating it usually involves lots of rest and drinking a large number of fluids. Many find that having chicken noodle soup can be helpful to curbing their condition, which may be due to the presence of certain antibodies present in the soup.

These are just a few facts that can be helpful when you are trying to learn more about the flu. If you are developing serious complications of the flu, you should speak with a doctor as soon as possible.