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Influenza

Influenza · Chřipka

What it is

A respiratory virus that mutates yearly and kills hundreds of thousands.

Symptoms & signs

  • Abrupt fever
  • aching muscles
  • headache
  • dry cough
  • exhaustion
  • sore throat

🚩 Get help if…

  • call 112 / 911 now Breathless at rest, blue lips, or chest pain
  • call 112 / 911 now Confusion, very drowsy, or a seizure
  • see a doctor soon Fever that comes back after getting better
  • see a doctor soon Pregnant, over 65 or with a long-term illness and getting worse

Where it strikes

Medical treatment

  • Oseltamivir within 48 h — about half a day less illness and nausea or vomiting in about 1 in 25; the hospitalisation claim did not survive independent review of the full trial data mixed evidence
  • Annual vaccination — in healthy adults about 1–2 confirmed cases prevented per hundred vaccinated (Cochrane), fewer in a badly matched year; Guillain-Barré about 1 per million doses mixed evidence
  • Paracetamol for fever and aches trials support
  • Fluids trials support
  • Antibiotics for the flu itself not confirmed in trials

Natural & lifestyle

  • Vaccination, weighed as above mixed evidence
  • Rest and hydration trials support
  • Hand hygiene trials support
  • Staying home while infectious trials support
  • Zinc and vitamin D if you are actually deficient mixed evidence

Emerging & experimental

  • Universal flu vaccines
  • mRNA multivalent vaccines
  • monoclonal antibodies

Alternative, off-label & anecdotal

Approaches used outside the guidelines, with what their supporters report and what testing has found so far.

  • Elderberry (Sambucus) — small trials shortened illness; a larger 2020 trial found no benefit mixed evidence
  • Vitamin D — prevents respiratory infections in people who are deficient mixed evidence
  • Echinacea — trials disagree mixed evidence
  • Oscillococcinum (homeopathic) — reviews found no benefit not confirmed in trials

ICD codes