Transmission
Influenza has two predominant mechanisms of transportation: person-to-person and fomites.
- Person-to-person transmission— Influenza is spread person to person via infected droplets (CDC, 2011). Droplets can come from sneezing, coughing, talking, or touching one's mouth. The infected droplets have the ability to infect others as far as six feet away (CDC, 2011).
- Fomites transmission—Influenza can be transmitted through fomites also. Fomites are inanimate objects such as doorknobs, tables, phones, ect. Transmission can occur when influenza droplets surface on objects and people come in contact with them, entering the body via mouth, nose, or eye contact (CDC, 2011).
Symptoms and Complications
The influenza virus can have a wide range of symptoms varying from mild to severe. (Hunt, 2010).
- Fever (usually from 100.4° to 104° F)
- Headaches
- Myalglias (muscle aches and pains)
- Fatigue
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Congested nose
- Diarrhea and vomiting Pulmonary complications (Hunt, 2010)—following and caused by influenza infection
- Croup (primarily in children): coughing, trouble breathing, stridor [textbox—wheezing sound while taking breaths]
- Pneumonia (caused by primary influenza virus)
Secondary bacterial infection (usually Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Hemophilus influenza) can also occur.
Non-pulmonary complications of influenza include the following:
- Cardiac complications
- Encephalopathy: Rare occurrence but influenza can cause subsequent brain disease.
- Reye's Syndrome: Very rare disease that effects the liver and brain after the influenza infection. Typically infects the young and has a case fatality rate of 40%.
- Guillain-Barre Syndrome: autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. It follows a bacterial or viral infection such as the influenza virus.