As a part of Community Health Partners’ commitment to ensuring the community has the most up to date information on important health issues, please find below important information on both seasonal and H1N1 flu.
This information, provided by the Centers for Disease Control, will help you determine what to do if you get sick with the flu this season.
How do I know if I have the flu?
You may have the flu if you have some or all of these symptoms:
- fever*
- cough
- sore throat
- runny or stuffy nose
- body aches
- headache
- chills
- fatigue
- sometimes diarrhea and vomiting
*Not everyone with the flu will have a fever.
What should I do if I get sick?
If you get sick with flu-like symptoms this flu season, you should stay home and avoid contact with other people except to get medical care. Most people with 2009 H1N1 have had mild illness and have not needed medical care or antiviral drugs and the same is true of seasonal flu.
However, some people are more likely to get flu complications and they should talk to a health care provider about whether they need to be examined if they get flu symptoms this season. They are:
- Children younger than 5, but especially children younger than 2 years old
- People 65 and older
- Pregnant women
- People who have chronic health conditions
Also, it’s possible for healthy people to develop severe illness from the flu so anyone concerned about their illness should consult a healthcare provider.
What are the emergency warning signs?
Anyone who has the following symptoms should get medical care right away.
In children:
- Fast breathing or trouble breathing
- Bluish skin color
- Not drinking enough fluids
- Not waking up or not interacting
- Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
- Flu-like symptoms improve but return with fever and worse cough
- Fever with a rash
- Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
- Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
- Sudden dizziness
- Confusion
- Severe or persistent vomiting
For more information, visit www.cdc.gov or www.flu.gov or call 1-800-CDC-INFO.
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