Signs of influenza in children and the difference from SARS

Everyone knows about the danger of flu for children. But not everyone is able to distinguish the flu virus from other viruses that can attack a baby. Therefore, it is worth considering in detail what signs may indicate the presence of exactly the flu and whether it is possible to distinguish this acute ailment from ARVI.

The main differences

There is a direct similarity between influenza and SARS - both of these ailments are caused by viruses. In this case, the first itself is part of the ARVI group - acute respiratory viral infections. However, influenza and ARVI differ in viruses - the causative agents of the disease. Adenoviruses, rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial viruses and other numerous representatives of the world of viruses can cause ARVI in a child. Influenza is always caused only by the influenza virus - representatives of its various strains.

Influenza very often becomes the cause of epidemics and pandemics, while not all viral infections are capable of "working" on such a scale when entire cities, countries and continents are affected by the disease. Influenza pathogens are always transmitted exclusively by airborne droplets, with particles of saliva, with exhaled air. Some viral infections, such as rotavirus, are transmitted by household contact and by fecal-oral.

Another significant difference between influenza and other viral respiratory diseases is the instability of the strains. The causative agent of influenza mutates every year, while most other infections caused by viruses are relatively stable.

Can you tell the difference?

Almost all acute respiratory viral ailments are considered to be influenza-like. They are indeed clinically very similar to the flu, but in essence they are not. It is almost impossible to distinguish influenza from SARS by eye. Even experienced doctors do not undertake this, because the only way to find out exactly what the child is sick with is laboratory diagnostics. Blood from a vein, swabs from the throat and nose are taken from the child. Research in the laboratory allows you to determine the presence of a specific virus of a certain strain (H1N1, H5N1 or another strain), and anti-influenza antibodies are found in the blood. Only if influenza is confirmed in the laboratory can the child be diagnosed accordingly.

External signs cannot be considered reliable, since influenza does not have a specific clinical picture, its symptoms can resemble many ARVI, and this is the main diagnostic difficulty. However, some differences do exist. For example, the body temperature of a child with influenza is always much higher than the temperature of a child with another acute respiratory viral infection; severe muscle aches and headaches are more common to influenza than other viral infections.

However, in the symptomatology of these diseases, everything is quite individual. And sometimes even doctors do not bother to clarify the diagnosis. If the child is sick, then the called doctor will most likely make a general diagnosis of ARVI. It is possible to count on the fact that the child will be made all the tests necessary to clarify the viral pathogen only if the sick person goes to the hospital.

If the child's health is difficult, and the vague diagnosis of ARVI does not inspire confidence in the parents, there is no need to be silent.

Mom and Dad have the right to demand from the medical worker who came to the call, hospitalization with further laboratory diagnostics. Sometimes it saves the lives of children, because the flu virus, namely its complications, are very dangerous.

Parents often refer to the common cold as the flu. This is wrong because a cold is the result of exposure to low temperatures on the child's body, during which immunity decreases, a runny nose or cough begins. Such a disease has nothing to do with viruses. Accordingly, colds do not have dangerous complications inherent in the flu, and the treatment of a common cold requires something completely different.

Distinguishing a cold from the flu is easy enough. With a cold, there is no such high temperature as with the flu, there are no muscle and joint pains, and intoxication. A cold can only manifest itself as respiratory symptoms, such as a runny nose, and often runs without fever. Influenza also differs from ARI (acute respiratory disease) in its causative agent. ARI can be caused not necessarily by viruses, sometimes allergens are to blame for the cold, while the flu is always an exclusively viral acute illness.

Symptoms

Influenza is rarely isolated, individual reported cases of disease rather quickly cloud the epidemiological picture. The virus is extremely contagious and can infect people of any age. Those who were vaccinated are also susceptible to it, but their disease is easier and usually does without serious and dangerous complications. The most dangerous flu is for pensioners and children, because their immunity for age-related physiological reasons is significantly weaker and more vulnerable than the immunity of an adult.

You can only get infected from a person who has the flu or is a hidden carrier, if the disease proceeds in an erased form. In the first few hours after infection, a person who does not yet realize that he is infected is a source of infection for others.

The first signs make themselves felt after the incubation period, which can be several hours, and can last several days. The disease lasts for about a week.

Cases of influenza infection in the spring cause less concern among specialists than the incidence in autumn and winter. The drier the air, the lower the humidity, the faster the influenza virus spreads and causes more severe forms of the disease. The most "favorite" of the influenza virus is the air temperature at which it is most active - from -5 to +5 degrees Celsius.

Infection occurs respiratory, the "gateway" for the influenza virus is the nasal passages, very rarely - the mucous membrane of the eyes. The virus first of all invades the cells of the ciliated epithelium, in which it begins its replication. The cells begin to die, the process spreads very quickly to the epithelial cells of the bronchi and trachea. When ciliated epithelium detaches due to the death of a large number of its cells, the virus enters the bloodstream.

The virus begins to spread throughout the body, in a child this stage is manifested by severe intoxication, headaches and muscle pains, aching joints, a feeling of unbearable pressure on the eyeballs. At the same time, the virus has a targeted effect on the child's immunity, causing its suppression. In children with weak immunity, this process proceeds faster, the likelihood of secondary bacterial infection and the development of severe complications increases.

The older the child, the lower the likelihood of complications and the longer the incubation period. It is clear that a child at 2 years old will be sick more severely than a child at 4 years old, and a child at 5 years old will find it more difficult to endure the flu than a teenager.

The first signs of flu are a dry nose with a high fever.

If a child's illness begins with a runny nose, then, most likely, we are talking about any other viral disease. Influenza at an early stage is characterized by the absence of nasal mucus flow. On the contrary, the disease manifests itself as a sensation of heat and dryness in the mouth and nose. At an early stage, a dry, frequent cough may also appear.

As the disease progresses, chest pain appears when coughing, nosebleeds may appear, pain throughout the body - in the legs, back, arms, hemorrhagic punctate rash. With a mild flu, the symptoms last for about 4 days, then they recede, the state of health improves somewhat, but weakness persists for several more days. We can talk about the development of complications when, after a little relief, the condition worsens again.

It is quite difficult to say unequivocally what complications with the flu can be, as well as to talk about the likelihood of complications in general. They do not develop as often as it seems. Only severe, toxic and moderate flu cases can lead to complications. Death from complications of influenza is possible at any age, but most often tragedies occur with children under 2 years of age.

Complications most often affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. These include severe pneumonia of bacterial origin, hemorrhagic pneumonia, lung abscess, distress syndrome, sinusitis, sinusitis, encephalitis, meningitis, myocarditis, various neuritis.

Flu temperature has its own distinctive features. It is high almost immediately, after the first signs of malaise, the temperature rises to 38.0-40.0 degrees. It lasts 3-4 days. With all forms of flu, be it swine flu or Hong Kong flu, the fever does not increase gradually, the temperature appears abruptly, acutely and immediately has high values.

Intoxication does not begin immediately. Unlike some acute respiratory viral infections, nausea and diarrhea, severe headache may appear in the second stage of the disease, about a few hours after the onset of high fever. The stomach rarely hurts with a flu infection, but this is possible, especially if the child is small. A sore throat appears most often simultaneously with signs of intoxication.

Treatment of ailment is effective only when the child is treated at the earliest stages.

Within a few hours from the onset of the disease, treatment with antiviral drugs is practically ineffective and only symptomatic treatment is possible - a decrease in fever with antipyretic drugs, instillation of vasoconstrictor drops with a severe cold. In case of intoxication, the loss of water and salts is compensated by giving the child preparations for oral rehydration, providing a plentiful drinking regime.