Globally we could say that one of the most common diseases is influenza or flu, millions of people suffer from it throughout the year, predominantly in the rainy season and when it is colder, so being something so common it is particularly regrettable that on average 650,0001 people die from influenza or Seasonal Flu, as it is also known, or diseases related to this pathology.
There are hundreds of viruses circulating in the world that are capable of producing respiratory symptoms, usually mutations of the 4 main viruses that have been related to severe cases of influenza, and which are those that protect the influenza vaccine, which is recommended, depending on the age of the person, to be placed annually.
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Influenza is a viral febrile disease, in which the pathogenic agent is classified into 4 major groups, in this case:
- Influenza A viruses.
- Influenza B viruses.
- Influenza C viruses.
- Influenza D viruses.
These in turn have subgroups, which according to what they produce can be denominated with letters and numbers, which makes their existence extremely complex. But regardless of that, the symptomatology produced by the 4 types are very similar, the big difference is in the severity in which the symptoms occur and the possibility of complications.
The main entry point for this type of virus is the nasal, conjunctival or oral mucosa. That is why hand washing becomes more important in this type of contagion, since it is usually generated when our hands have contact with a contaminated surface and then we take it to our face.
The first thing that appears is fever, suddenly and with temperatures even above 39.5 degrees, which is usually difficult to manage. With this comes a general malaise, sore throat, cough that is usually dry, runny nose (usually crystalline), muscle pain.
This is the classic picture of any flu, however, as I said before, the magnitude of the symptoms is what makes it a disease of great care, and this severe expression of symptoms is closely related to the strength of the immune system of the affected person, being the most prone to suffer complications people over 65 years old, children under 5 years old and pregnant women.
The reasons for these ages is logical, is because the extreme ages (less than 5 years old and more than 65 years old) usually by natural condition have a lower organic protection, and pregnant women, product of their gestation process their immune system is affected and makes it more prone to suffer from certain diseases, including influenza.
Although there are millions of people who annually present respiratory diseases produced by any of the types of influenza virus, the number of deaths is on average between 250,000 to 650,000, with the vast majority of these cases occurring in developing countries.
It is necessary that all people from the age of 6 months old get the annual influenza vaccine, this contains what will activate the defense system of our body to work optimally at the time they come into contact with these viruses.
I asked a question in the title of this publication: a preventable disease?, this is a very common question from people, which is usually accompanied by another no less common one: if I am still going to get sick, why should I get vaccinated?. Well, it is a simple answer in theory, but it has great implications in practice.
As I said earlier, there are millions of cases of influenza globally, and between 3 and 5 million severe cases occur, of which between 7 and 20% die. The reality is that throughout the history of mankind there have been serious epidemics of influenza, which have caused the death of millions of people, this is not now the reality (except for some special cases) thanks to the vaccines that make their effect.
It must be understood that vaccines in general, is not so that the disease is not generated but so that the severe form of these does not occur, which is what finally ends up causing the death of the most sensitive people to this.
The production of influenza vaccines is done annually and is permanently updated based on the viruses that the laboratories detect are the most frequent. That is to say, the vaccine that we get this year will protect us against the most common viruses of last year, therefore, if these mutate very quickly to such an extent that they cannot be blocked by the vaccine, these serious diseases are generated, and if we add to that extreme ages of life, the results will not be good.
But even so, vaccines in general have proven to be very effective, not only against influenza but against many other diseases, to the point that some have even been eradicated.
Thank you all for your support, hoping, as always, that this post will be useful for you.
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