Seasonal Flu and Swine Flu Fundamentals

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Seasonal Flu and Swine Flu Fundamentals

By Erin O'Donnell

To keep your family healthy and safe this flu season, it’s important to know all you can about the two types of influenza circulating. Seasonal flu and H1N1 (swine flu) share some important similarities, but they also differ in critical ways. Here are the flu fundamentals on everything from symptoms to prevention.

Seasonal and Swine Flu Differences
Who’s at risk Seasonal flu and swine flu appear to infect different populations. For seasonal flu, the elderly are the most likely to contract the virus and to develop complications. For swine flu, children and young adults are at highest risk.

“While older adults can get H1N1, it is infecting those 25 and younger at a much higher rate,” explains Dr. Aaron Milstone, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore.

Vaccines Because swine flu and seasonal flu are different illnesses, they involve two separate flu vaccines. That means there is one vaccine to protect against seasonal flu and a second to prevent H1N1. Both vaccines can be delivered by either nasal spray or injection.

Seasonal and Swine Flu Similarities
Symptoms Both viruses usually trigger fever, cough, runny nose or congestion, and body aches. “The viruses are very similar in terms of the symptoms they cause,” says Dr. Matthew Davis, associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit of the University of Michigan Medical School.

Red-flag warnings Most people with swine flu and seasonal flu get a mild illness that might make them feel miserable for a few days but isn’t life-threatening. But with both types of flu, it’s important to watch for red-flag warning signs that suggest a person is developing severe complications.

In children, look for fast breathing or breathing difficulty. Also, act fast if skin appears bluish or the child has a fever with a rash. Failure to wake up or interact, and extreme irritability, are also warning signs. In addition, symptoms that improve but then return with fever and a worse cough need immediate attention.

In adults, red flags include breathing difficulty, pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen, sudden dizziness, confusion, or severe or persistent vomiting.

Prevention Both viruses are transmitted through tiny amounts of mucus released when you talk, sneeze or cough, explains Dr. Robert W. Frenck Jr., professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. You can prevent the spread of both flu viruses by developing these healthy habits:

Wash your hands. Several times a day, wash your hands with soap and water, especially before eating. If you don’t have sink access, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
Cover your cough. If you feel the urge to cough or sneeze, cover your mouth with a tissue and then throw the tissue away. If you don’t have a tissue handy, cough into your elbow.
Stay home. If you get sick, plan on staying home for four days, or until the fever has been gone for 24 hours without the aid of fever-reducing medication.
Get vaccinated. “Vaccination is the best way to prevent influenza, whether it’s seasonal flu or H1N1,” says Dr. Davis. To find H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccination clinics near you, contact your local or state health department.

Erin O'Donnell is a freelance health writer based in Milwaukee. She was editor of Natural Health magazine, and she writes about health for The Boston Globe Magazine.

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Betty on January 19, 2010, 5:31 pm

Is the H1N1 safe to get the shot? What are the reactions to the shot?

Ray Marcel on January 19, 2010, 2:20 pm

If I take the shot, what are the side effects of the shot.

dr mustafa elturki on January 18, 2010, 1:19 am

most physicins says the time of swine flu vaccine is almost over . is this fact true?

ray ray on January 17, 2010, 3:56 pm

jennyray - its hard to know what to do when your child cant explain themselves

Tom E. on January 16, 2010, 8:17 am

I was forced to take both injections because of where I work. Now I have pain in my neck,arm,and underarm. it is a constant pain, could this be one of the side effects of this vaccination

sophia love on January 12, 2010, 11:32 pm

vaccinations damage your cells.Vaccines are toxic mixtures loaded with various substances that never should be injected into a human body-including foreign proteins and dangerous viruses from chickens, guinea pigs, calves, and monkeys.By failing to inform us of the dangers and taking away our power to choose otherwise, mandated vaccinations become a crime against humanity.

CONCERNER on January 12, 2010, 7:07 pm

THEY ARE WANTING TO THIN OUT THE COUNTRY BECAUSE THE ECONOMIC CHRISIS IS OUT OF CONTROL ANDTHEY DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT JUST PRAY

jesse on January 12, 2010, 5:00 am

I heard that the h1n1 and the h1n1 vac was created to help lower the population as a form of slow genicide and to cause infertility in woman and to make men sterile. Is this true, what do you think?

dhananjay singh pathania on January 12, 2010, 2:32 am

can any one explain me the side effects of this vaccine ? and the cost of this.......... it has to be in reach of an ordinary person. it has to be judged as it can save life of a person.

Sara S on January 11, 2010, 10:45 pm

My 1.5 year old got swine flu in October when it peaked. He had 103 temp plus a bad sounding cough a few days before that. My hubby thought I was crazy but after the fact was really glad we went when he was diagnosed with swine flu. They didn't want to give him Tamiflu even though he was in the high risk group which I did not understand. I did not leave that hospital until they prescribed him Tamiflu and I really think it may have saved his life. They told me to just give him Tylenol. How stupid is that? Give him the same thing you'd give if he were teething? And these people were doctors and nurses. I drove at 5 am 30 minutes away to get him the Tamiflu because all of the pharmacies around us were out of it! Some parents got tired of waiting and left the E.R. I think they are so crazy they couldn't wait another 15 minutes to be seen? Their kids were the sickest ones in there and I would have died before I would have left the hospital without getting them treated! But really, not sure if the vaccine would have done anything anyway for our son, it takes a few weeks for it to work, you have to get them two shots, and most of those doses were probably part of that 800,000 recalled, and who knows what side effects it would have had on him now, or in the future. They say if Tamiflu doesn't work then Relenza will take care of it. I'd say not to worry and I still after all that would not have given him the vaccine. My husband and I are getting the vaccine this week however, because I have a 1.5 month old now also who cannot get Tamiflu if he gets sick. I supposedly already had Swine flu myself but not 100% sure. My husband hasn't had it. I don't think it is as bad as the media makes it out to be, but I think you have to be smart and if you think you have it, get treated right away it could save your life! If you read about most of the individual cases where people have died from it, it's because they ignored their symptoms, were not treated in time, or didn't even see a doctor at all.