Meteorologists have already announced the start of winter, and epidemiologists warn that a flu surge is expected in January and February, and ARVI cases have already begun to rise in Irkutsk Oblast. The article explains in detail how dangerous flu is, what symptoms should raise concern, and why it can lead to severe complications and even death. It also notes that flu remains one of the most dangerous infections in the world, and history has already seen pandemics with millions of victims.

According to meteorologists’ forecasts, winter has begun – the temperature has dropped below zero, and snow has fallen. However, besides meteorological forecasts, there are other forecasts as well, and they promise by no means New Year’s holidays, skiing, and other winter joys. We are talking about the predictions of epidemiologists, who this year expect the start of the winter flu epidemic in January-February, according to the federal flu center. In the territory of the Irkutsk Region, last year the epidemic season of influenza and ARVI morbidity was registered in early January and lasted until April.
These gloomy forecasts are already beginning to come true – according to Rospotrebnadzor, in recent weeks the incidence of flu and other ARVI has begun to increase.
Flu symptoms are known to everyone – after several hours of mild malaise, a severe headache begins, body temperature rises significantly, and general weakness and aches in the muscles and joints appear. This is quickly followed by a painful dry cough, chest pain when breathing, and often sneezing and a runny nose. After several of the most severe days, these manifestations gradually subside, but it will take 7-10 days of bed rest before the condition normalizes, and full recovery of strength will come no earlier than a month later.
But this is not always the case. Influenza is a much more serious disease than most people are used to thinking. Sometimes it occurs in a lightning-fast hypertoxic form, when severe intoxication can within just a few days cause increased bleeding, disturbances in the functioning of the brain and internal organs, and lead to death. Influenza complications can end just as sadly – pneumonia, inflammation of the membranes of the brain, or the heart muscle, with people with weakened immunity, children, and the elderly being at greatest risk.

Of course, such serious complications develop in a relatively small number of those who fall ill, but given that influenza comes in epidemics affecting a considerable part of the population, there is reason to think. Every year, on average, about half a million people die from influenza, which places it, along with other ARVI, in first place in mortality among all infectious diseases.

Once every few decades, an influenza epidemic reaches the scale of a pandemic, which covers several continents and claims many millions of lives. The largest known influenza pandemic, called the “Spanish flu,” occurred in 1918-19, and according to various estimates, 50 to 100 million people fell victim to it.