When people are feeling ill, they often mistake cold symptoms for flu symptoms. But influenza is a category of viral respiratory illnesses characterized by much more severe symptoms than the common cold causes. Swine flu is a type of influenza that is thought to have spread to humans from pigs, but the illness itself is only slightly different from seasonal flu. Seasonal flu occurs annually in the fall and winter months in the United States.
Symptoms of Seasonal flu vs. Swine Flu
Both seasonal flu and swine flu are characterized by a rapid onset with extreme fatigue, chills, muscle aches, and respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and a sore throat. Often patients will run a fever, but not always. Swine flu, also known as H1N1 flu, causes a slightly higher incidence of gastrointestinal symptoms than seasonal flu, and in 2010 the H1N1 strain caused more complications and fatalities in younger and healthier people than the seasonal flu strain did.
Severity and Complications
Both types of influenza can cause significant respiratory complications, including pneumonia and bronchitis. Both types can also allow other infections to take effect due to the lowered resistance of sufferers and can exacerbating chronic conditions like heart disease and asthma. Ear infections, sinus infections and dehydration can all occur or get worse in conjunction with seasonal or swine flu.
In 2010, swine flu was more likely to cause complications and fatalities among young people without a history of chronic health problems than seasonal flu. This led epidemiologists and the media to become concerned that this flu might have higher virulence and a higher incidence of fatality than seasonal flu.
How Seasonal Flu And Swine Flu Spread
Both seasonal flu and swine flu infect humans via contact with the mucous membranes of the body, most often those in the nose or eyes. If you touch a surface contaminated with either type of flu virus and then rub your eyes or touch your nose, you run the risk of inserting the virus into your body and catching the flu.
People who have either type of flu shed the virus through droplets of body fluids, and they may be contagious for a full day before symptoms develop. Avoiding contact with crowds of potentially infected people during flu season may help you avoid flu. Stay away from people who are coughing or sneezing and teach your kids about flu and its transmission.
If you or a family member does catch the flu, you can help prevent spreading it to other members of the family by wearing a droplet mask, available at drugstores. Washing your hands frequently and disinfecting surfaces and items used by multiple family members can help as well. You should remain at home or keep your children home until 24 hours after their fever is gone to avoid spreading flu to others.
Vaccination and Prevention
The single most important tool for preventing infection with both types of flu is handwashing. Wash your hands with soap and water or use an antiseptic hand gel before eating or preparing food, after using the restroom, and after touching surfaces in public places such as doorknobs, elevator buttons, shopping carts or pay phones. Keep a bottle of hand sanitizer at the entrance to your home and get into the habit of using it as soon as you enter. Also, you can frequently disinfect surfaces in your home with a germicidal spray that has an antiviral effect.
Both seasonal influenza and swine flu can also be prevented with a vaccine. All flu vaccine is made by taking samples of the virus and growing them in a medium made with eggs. The virus is then completely killed and the proteins preserved and mixed into an injectable form. It is impossible to catch either swine flu or seasonal flu from an injectable flu vaccine. There is a form of flu virus that can be instilled into the nose rather than injected, and this form is weakened rather than killed. Since only healthy people aged 5 to 49 can take this vaccine, the risk to them is minimal, but the weakened virus in the vaccine can cause illness in people with severe immune compromise or people who are very young or old.
For people in certain risk categories, such as those with chronic illnesses, antiviral medication can be given to reduce the severity and duration of both swine flu and seasonal flu. These medications must be prescribed by a doctor, must be started within a day of the onset of symptoms and must be taken exactly as prescribed.
Expert Insight
Despite the media hype surrounding the H1N1 swine flu vaccine in 2010, its virulence, severity, and duration were not significantly different from the annually occurring seasonal influenza. Any flu virus can make you miserable, cause you to have complications, or even be fatal, so the best thing to do is prevent flu from catching up with you. Good handwashing, vaccines, and avoiding obviously sick people and crowds will all help you get through flu season unscathed.
