With the winter season under way, influenza cases have risen in both children and adults.

The Witness contacted five major pharmacies in Pietermaritzburg who have all confirmed an increase in influenza — commonly referred to as “flu” — cases.

A pharmacist at Medport Pharmacy said they have seen an increase in flu cases in both adults and children. “The numbers are high and it’s spreading quite fast. It’s in both adults and children. It spreads from child to parent,” he said.

“Flu has definitely increased in both adults and children,” confirmed a Royal Pharmacy pharmacist.

“There have also been quite a few serious cases that we have seen so it’s definitely something for parents to be concerned about.”

Hayfields pharmacy said while they have flu cases coming in, they have also started seeing an increase in mumps cases, which have been common in children who have not yet received their mumps and rubella vaccination.

NICD

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), whenever there’s an outbreak of flu, which is usually over the winter months, myths begin to circulate, some as contagious as the flu itself.

These range from confusion about what flu actually is, to speculation about how it is transmitted.

Flu is a contagious respiratory tract illness caused by the influenza virus.

There are three different strains that can cause seasonal flu in humans.

They are called influenza A (H1N1), influenza A (H3N2) and influenza B. According to the NICD, here are common myths which regularly do the rounds: Flu is just a bad cold. False: Both flu and colds are respiratory illnesses but they are caused by different viruses.

Flu is generally worse than a cold. Flu presents with a sudden onset [within a few hours] of some or all of the following: fever, upper respiratory symptoms [such as runny and congested nose], cough, tiredness, muscle pains, body aches, headaches, cold shivers and sweating.

A cold presents with a runny nose or congestion and generally does not result in serious complications.

Complications of Flu

Flu can lead to serious complications, including pneumonia.

Pneumonia is an infection of the lung which results from either the influenza virus alone (viral pneumonia) or from co-infection with a bacteria (secondary bacterial pneumonia).

Other possible serious complications triggered by flu can be heart, brain or muscle tissue inflammation and multi-organ failure.

A serious flu infection may require admission to a hospital, especially in high-risk groups for severe influenza complications.

These include pregnant women, people over the age of 65, children under two years old, people with underlying medical conditions such as kidney or lung disease and diabetes. Most people will recover from flu within three to seven days.

The Flu vaccine

The influenza vaccine can give you flu. False: The vaccine does not contain live virus so you cannot “catch” flu from the vaccine.

At the time when influenza vaccine is recommended (just before the flu season), there are many other types of respiratory viruses around that can cause similar signs and symptoms to flu.

There is a high chance of being infected with one of these viruses and people often incorrectly attribute the illness to a flu shot they’ve just had.

The vaccine also takes two weeks to work so you could catch flu during this period, especially if you receive the influenza vaccine after the flu season has started.

One more fact on vaccines: the flu vaccine needs to be repeated every year as the flu viruses change slightly each year.