Complications
In the onset of complications the immune situation of the affected person plays a fundamental role, particularly influenced by other diseases already present at the time of the infection with the H1N1 virus. Complications may be due to the direct action of the virus or to bacterial infections.
Those due to the direct action of the virus are:
- bronchitis (10% of cases): due to the dissemination of the virus to the most distant branches of the bronchial tree. It is characterized by fever, sputum (catarrh) mucous, sometimes blood-streaked;
- pneumonia: begins on the second-third day with dyspnea (air hunger), cyanosis (bluish complexion of the skin due to lack of oxygen), sputum with abundant presence of blood, chest pain, sweating, tachycardia;
- others (very rare): myocarditis, encephalitis, involvement of nerve structures (myelitis, neuritis, radiculitis, poliradicolonevrite).
In early childhood you can also have:
- bronchiolitis: characterized by dyspnea, tachypnea (increased frequency of breath), cough with foamy or blood-streaked sputum, rapid appearance of cyanosis, agitation;
- Acute stenosing laryngitis (viral croup): with "barking" cough (because it looks like a dog's howl), dyspnea especially in inspiration, cyanosis, agitation, pallor, sweating.
The bacterial complications of swine flu are generally sustained by germs such as staphylococcus, pneumococcus, streptococcus, Haemophilus influenzae . They appear after 2-15 days, even in convalescence and are more frequent against the respiratory system, due to the implantation of these germs on the fragile mucosa damaged by the action of the virus. Possible complications are: bronchitis, pneumonia, bronchopneumonia, but also otitis and sinusitis; they occur mainly in children and the elderly, in subjects with weak immune systems, heart patients or carriers of diseases of the respiratory system (asthma, emphysema, chronic bronchitis). The picture is characterized by the persistence of fever, cough with sputum full of mucus or pus.
See also: Nutrition, medicinal herbs and flu
