Etymologically, the word flu comes from the French “grippe”, this is because the French in the 18th century called the cold epidemic that way, the French word comes from the frank “grip” which means claw. The flu is an easily contagious and infectious disease, produced by a virus called influenza, which affects the respiratory tract, mainly the nose, throat, bronchial tubes and occasionally, the lungs.
The flu tends to be confused with the cold, but the symptoms of influenza are usually much more intense than those of the cold, which are the peculiar sneezing and a stuffy nose. On the other hand, a person is infected with the influenza virus if they experience symptoms such as fever, dizziness, chills, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite, cough, muscle aches, sore throat, diarrhea, runny nose, nausea or vomiting, weakness and earache. These are the most common symptoms of the flu, which usually appear two days after exposure to the virus.
The flu can be spread from person to person through coughing, by face-to-face contact, or by sneezing, but it is important to note that it can also be spread when an individual touches an object contaminated by the virus and then touches their own mouth or nose.. Next, older people and young children are more likely to have more complications when it comes to being infected by the virus, and also people of any age with different health conditions. The duration of this disease is not very clear, it depends on how the virus is fought, but usually after about five days, the fever and other symptoms may disappear, but the cough and weakness may continue.
