Flu infection (influenza) can be severe

Influenza can be particularly severe in older people or patients with pre-existing medical conditions.

The symptoms of an infection with the influenza virus usually last one to two weeks. This also applies to the so-called swine flu. While a Flu For a healthy organism with an intact immune system, it is not normally a life-threatening problem, but can be a serious problem for older people, pregnant women, young children and people with pre-existing conditions such as Asthma, COPD, Diabetes mellitus as well as damage to the heart or serious complications in immunocompromised patients.

In the worst case, these can even lead to death, warns the Professional Association of German Internists (BDI). The danger is often not the viruses themselves, but a possible additional bacterial infection that can be a secondary disease to a flu infection. Since the respiratory tract is already weakened by the influenza viruses, bacteria can penetrate the lungs more easily, multiply explosively and then cause further Diseases in particular, pneumonia.

Annual vaccination provides protection

A very effective protection against influenza is the annual Flu vaccinationThe vaccination only offers protection for one flu season - partly because the flu viruses are constantly changing - and must therefore be repeated every year. Healthy adults build up an average of over 85% protection against flu after a single injection, provided that the viruses actually occurring in the season in question match those in the vaccine, which has usually been the case in the past.

In patients who contract the flu despite having been vaccinated, the course of the disease is generally much milder than in non-vaccinated patients. For this reason, the flu vaccination is particularly important for people with pre-existing conditions who are at particularly high risk of developing a serious course of the disease.

In each flu season, around 10 percent of the world's population falls ill with influenza. Due to the increased health risk, the Standing Committee on Vaccination (STIKO) at the Robert Koch Institute recommends flu vaccination for people aged 60 and over, chronically ill people, pregnant women, medical staff, nursing staff in old people's and nursing homes, and people who have a lot of contact with other people due to their professional activities.

According to the Robert Koch Institute, an average of around 10.000 people have died from the effects of influenza in each flu season over the past ten years. However, the number of deaths can vary considerably. While there were only around 2000 deaths in the 2001/100 season, estimates for the severe flu season in winter 2004/2005 are around 15.000.

Source: http://www.internisten-im-netz.de