How Can Fle Help a Family With Chronic Illness
Overview
The flu (influenza) is a contagious virus that anyone tin get. But at that place are several things you can do to avoid catching information technology, or spreading it to others.
If you remember that you might take the influenza you should stay home and self-isolate.
You can call Telehealth at
COVID-19
Some of the symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to the flu, and it may be hard to tell the departure between them based on symptoms alone.
If you call back you have COVID-19, you can go tested. If you accept symptoms, you should stay home and self-isolate for fourteen days or until you get your results.
If you lot don't have COVID-19, yous may have the flu or another respiratory illness.
When to go the flu shot
Flu season typically runs from tardily fall to early spring.
Flu shots are now available for all Ontarians. You should get a influenza shot as before long equally possible because it takes two weeks to accept effect.
The National Advisory Commission on Immunization (NACI) now recommends that COVID-19 vaccines may exist given at the same time every bit the flu vaccine.
Talk to your doctor or pharmacy to acquire more.
The flu shot is your best defence force
This year'south flu season is taking identify at the same time as COVID-19. Don't have whatever unnecessary risks with your wellness. Get the flu shot as early in the season as possible.
The flu shot is recommended for everyone 6 months quondam and older. It is:
- safe (including for kids and if you are pregnant or breastfeeding)
- free
- available from your doctor or nurse practitioner, and at participating pharmacies and local public wellness units across the province
- proven to reduce the number of md visits, hospitalizations and deaths related to the flu
- different each year because the virus changes frequently – then you lot need to get it every fall
Where to get the flu vaccine
half-dozen months upward to 2 years old
- dr. or nurse practitioner
- some local public health units
Children half dozen months to 2 years old tin get their flu shot from a md, nurse practitioner or local public health unit. Children nether two years quondam cannot get a flu shot at a chemist's shop.
two to 64 years quondam
- doctor or nurse practitioner
- some local public health units
- participating pharmacies
Children every bit young as two years of historic period tin can now get their flu shot at a participating chemist's.
65 and older
For the 2021/2022 flavour, if you're 65 and older, there are 3 different influenza shots available:
- The standard-dose vaccine protects confronting four strains of influenza virus
- The adjuvanted vaccine protects against three strains of flu virus and contains an adjuvant (a substance added to a vaccine that helps the recipient develop an improved immune response).
- The high-dose vaccine, (also called "Fluzone® HighDose Quadrivalent") protects against four strains of flu virus, merely in higher doses.
All iii flu vaccines are safety, effective and offering stiff protection to seniors. Talk to your doc, nurse practitioner, pharmacist or public wellness unit of measurement about which option is best for you lot. To become any of the standard dose, the adjuvanted or the high dose:
- visit a doctor or nurse practitioner
- contact your local public wellness unit
- visit a participating pharmacy
Other tips to avoid getting – and spreading – the flu
Launder your easily often
- fifty-fifty after getting the influenza shot, washing with soap and h2o for at least 15 seconds helps keep the virus from spreading
- if lather and water are non bachelor, use a paw sanitizer (gel or wipes) with at least lxx% alcohol
Embrace your mouth when you coughing or sneeze
- use a tissue and throw information technology out rather than putting information technology in your pocket, on a desk-bound or tabular array
- if you don't have a tissue, cough into your upper sleeve
Don't impact your face up
- the flu virus spreads when people with the flu cough, sneeze or talk and aerosol enter your body through your eyes, nose or oral cavity
Stay at home when you're sick
- viruses spread more easily in group settings, such equally businesses, schools and nursing homes
Clean (and disinfect) surfaces and shared items
- viruses can live for 24 to 48 hours on difficult surfaces such as countertops, door handles, computer keyboards and phones
Who is well-nigh at risk
Complications from the flu can include serious conditions, similar pneumonia or heart attacks and, in some cases, death. Flu causes about 12,200 hospitalizations and iii,500 deaths in Canada each year.
Some people are more vulnerable to complications and hospitalization from the influenza:
- babies under half dozen months old are besides immature to get the flu shot, but they'll get some protection if their parent got the influenza shot while they were pregnant
- children under 5 years of age, because their allowed systems are developing, and their airways are small and more easily blocked
- people 65 years former and older, because their immune systems are weaker and they are more likely to have an underlying status that increases their risk
- significant people, because their immune system, eye and lungs change – especially afterwards in pregnancy – making them more probable to get seriously ill from the flu
- people with underlying wellness conditions, such equally asthma, heart disease or diabetes
Symptoms
Symptoms typically appear one to four days afterward yous've been exposed to the virus, but yous're nevertheless contagious even if yous don't evidence symptoms yet.
Most people who get the flu volition recover within seven to 10 days.
You may accept caught the flu if you have:
- fever
- chills
- cough
- runny eyes
- stuffy olfactory organ
- sore throat
- headache
- musculus aches
- extreme weakness and tiredness
- loss of appetite
Some people may have diarrhea or vomiting, though this is more mutual in children than adults.
Flu vs. common cold
The symptoms of the flu and the common cold can exist very similar but, unlike a case of the common cold, the flu tin pb to serious health problems like pneumonia.
Utilise this chart to aid determine if y'all take a common cold or the flu.
| Symptom | Cold | Flu |
|---|---|---|
| Fever | Rare | Common, high (102°F - 104°F or 39°C- xl°C) Starts of a sudden, lasts 3 to iv days Not anybody with the flu gets a fever |
| General aches and pains | Sometimes, mild | Mutual, often severe |
| Muscle aches | Sometimes, normally balmy | Frequently, tin can exist astringent |
| Feeling tired and weak | Sometimes, mild | Common, may last 2 to iii weeks or more |
| Fatigue (extreme tiredness) | Unusual | Common, starts early |
| Sneezing | Common | Sometimes |
| Complications | Tin lead to sinus congestion or earache | Can atomic number 82 to pneumonia and respiratory failure, worsen a current chronic respiratory status, exist life-threatening |
| Chest discomfort and/or coughing | Sometimes, mild to moderate | Common, can become severe |
If you get the flu
Be sure to:
- stay dwelling house and get enough of residue
- drink lots of fluids
- speak to your doctor, nurse practitioner or pharmacist nigh over-the-counter medications that tin can help you lot feel better (such as basic pain or fever relievers), but exercise not give acetylsalicylic acid (ASA or Aspirin®) to anyone nether 18 years quondam
- treat muscle pain using a hot water canteen or heating pad – utilize heat for short periods of fourth dimension
- take a warm bath
- gargle with a drinking glass of warm salt water or suck on hard processed or lozenges
- use spray or saline drops for a stuffy nose
- avert alcohol, caffeine and tobacco
Call your medico or nurse practitioner if:
- you don't outset to feel amend subsequently a few days
- your symptoms become worse
- you are in a high-risk grouping and develop influenza symptoms
Source: https://www.ontario.ca/page/flu-facts
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