Influenza / Flu (H3N2) – all you need to know

Recently we have seen surge in the cases of Influenza popularly known as flu.

There are 4 variants of Influenza- A, B, C and D.

Influenza A and B circulate widely and cause seasonal epidemic of the disease.

Influenza A virus further subdivided on the basis of their surface protein hemaggultinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Main subtypes are H1N1 and H3N2.

Influenza B virus don’t have subtypes but can have different lineages. Currently circulating influenza B virus belongs to either B/Yamagata or B/Victoria lineage.

Influenza C and D virus are detected less frequently and cause mild infection thus is of not much public significance.

Currently we are seeing lot of cases of H3N2 subtype. Common symptoms of this strain are high grade fever which may last for 5-7 days and sometimes it becomes difficult to bring down the temperature and many of the time patients lands in hospital due to high grade fever. Apart from fever severe throat pain, cough, cold, body ache and weakness remains major symptoms. Few people also have gastrointestinal symptoms in the form of vomiting and diarrhoea. Mostly infection settles down in one week time in most of the cases with supportive therapy but few times cough and weakness can persist for few weeks to few months.

Detection of this virus can be done by doing throat swab test which will identify the subtypes of influenza. More than 99% patients do recover over a period of time without any long term damage but very few requires hospitalisation.

Prevention is mainly FLU appropriate behaviour like masking your face all the time when outdoors or in public areas, maintaining social distancing and hand hygiene. Good hydration is the key for fast recovery along with supportive treatment.

Dr Neeraj Tulara

Consultant Physician and Infectious Disease Expert

Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital, Mumbai

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