The flu is a highly contagious disease and more common in the winter months especially as people remain in close proximity to each ... ]]> The flu is only caused by three influenza viruses:

Influenza A which is responsible for the worldwide pandemics

Influenza B – tends to be common in more localised outbreaks

Influenza C tends to show up as only mild symptoms

Both influenza A and B are responsible for the seasonal outbreaks of the flu contributing too many hospital admissions and deaths related to the flu. As the flu virus (especially Influenza A) is able to easily mutate its form, it is very difficult to treat the influenza virus therefore causing outbreaks to large communities and even worldwide as people are now able to transport easily over the world. Influenza B is a more stable virus so most people after getting the virus can develop immunity to it and this usually occurs in childhood if they have not been vaccinated against it.

Influenza C tends to only present itself as a mild respiratory illness or sometimes shows no symptoms at all. There is no vaccination for influenza C. Most flu reports in the news reports or newspaper are about Influenza A and B.

The flu is a highly contagious disease and more common in the winter months especially as people remain in close proximity to each other while indoors. It tends to be passed by inhaling airborne particles such as coughing and sneezing and then transmitted from person to person. It can also be transferred by coming in contact with secretions such as kissing or hand to hand contact. It can also be transferred on objects such as door knobs, telephones, computer keyboards etc as the virus is capable of living for short periods off the human host. This means that if an infected person coughed or sneezed onto their hand and then touched and object, you are capable of picking up the virus by touching the same object and then touching your eyes, nose or mouth and ingesting the virus.

There is a greater risk of getting infected with the Influenza virus in highly populated places, such as schools. The children become infected with the virus and then bring the virus home to the family. This is then quickly spread throughout the community.

An infected person with the Influenza virus has the virus in their secretions for twenty four hours prior to them feeling unwell or showing signs of the virus which means they can infect others before they are even aware they have the influenza virus. They are contagious for up to seven days. Children with the Influenza virus can be contagious for up to two weeks

According to the researchers on flu, the flu is caused by the flu viruses that can affect our aspiratory system. When we get infected, the flu virus will inhabit in ... ]]> Flu is a highly contagious disease, and there is a death rate of about 0.1% among those who catch flu. You may know the pandemic of 1918 flu, which caused 50 million people’s death. Sometimes, the flu is dreadful, like bird flu, so it is wise of us to know the causes of the flu. When we know the causes, we can have proper measures taken to prevent the flu from spreading wildly. This article is to help the readers to know the causes of the flu.

According to the researchers on flu, the flu is caused by the flu viruses that can affect our aspiratory system. When we get infected, the flu virus will inhabit in our eyes and respiratory system. A few days later, we will have runny nose, sore throat, and run a high fever. It is also possible that it can lead to pneumonia. What’s worse, we can pass the flu virus from person to person, and we can pass the flu to our pet animals, too. Ferrets, cats, dogs (particularly, greyhounds) can catch flu from us. Up to now, the researchers have found three types of flu viruses, namely, type A, type B, and type C. They are all responsible for the causes of the flu.

However, they are different. Type A is the one which causes epidemics around the world. The viruses of type A have different variants, and they change from time to time. Type A has two sub-branches of the variants. Either of the sub-branch variants can cause serious illness of flu, if there is no proper and timely treatment. In most of the death cases, people die from Type A flu viruses. They change constantly by mutation, and the constant changing can make the viruses easily invade the cells of our respiratory system. What’s worse, they can invade our immune system as well. Type B functions similar to Type A. However, Type B is milder, and it can only cause local outbreak of flu. Type C is the mildest among the three types, which could only cause very common cold symptoms.

How can we get hit with the flu then? The flu viruses are divided into types based on differences in two viral surface proteins, called the hemagglutinin (H) and the neuraminidase (N) respectively. They can have many combinations. The viruses can spread by droplets or direct contact. That is to say, the flu viruses spread and transit via airborne transmissions, and they can spread by handshakes or kisses or touching on the things with flu virus. It is well known that the flu virus can live for a period of time on objects which they drop on, such as tables, shelves, doorknobs, pens, keyboards, telephone