Stay off work or school until you're feeling better. For most people, this will take about a week. Read more about treating flu at home. In these situations, you may need medication to treat or prevent complications of flu. Your GP may recommend taking antiviral medicine to reduce your symptoms and help you recover more quickly. Read more about antiviral medication for flu. You should begin to feel much better within a week or so, although you may feel tired for much longer.
You'll usually be most infectious from the day your symptoms start and for a further 3 to 7 days. Children and people with weaker immune systems may remain infectious for longer. Most people will make a full recovery and won't experience any further problems, but elderly people and people with certain long-term medical conditions are more likely to have a bad case of flu or develop a serious complication, such as a chest infection.
Read more about the complications of flu. The flu virus is contained in the millions of tiny droplets that come out of the nose and mouth when someone who is infected coughs or sneezes. These droplets typically spread about one metre. They hang suspended in the air for a while before landing on surfaces, where the virus can survive for up to 24 hours.
Anyone who breathes in the droplets can catch flu. You can also catch the virus by touching the surfaces that the droplets have landed on if you pick up the virus on your hands and then touch your nose or mouth. Everyday items at home and in public places can easily become contaminated with the flu virus, including food, door handles, remote controls, handrails, telephone handsets and computer keyboards.
Therefore, it's important to wash your hands frequently. You can catch flu many times because flu viruses change regularly and your body won't have a natural resistance to the new versions. You can also help stop the spread of flu by avoiding unnecessary contact with other people while you're infectious.
You should stay off work or school until you're feeling better. In some people at risk of more serious flu, an annual flu vaccine or antiviral medication may be recommended to help reduce the risk of becoming infected. Read more about how to stop the spread of flu. The symptoms of flu usually develop within 1 to 3 days of becoming infected. Most people will feel better within a week.
It can sometimes be difficult to tell if you have flu or just a cold , as the symptoms can be quite similar. The main differences are:. If you are otherwise fit and healthy, there's usually no need to visit your GP if you have flu-like symptoms. You should just rest at home until you feel better, while keeping warm, drinking plenty of water and taking painkillers if necessary. Read more about how to treat flu.
In these situations, you may need extra treatment to prevent or treat complications of flu. Usually, you can manage flu symptoms yourself at home and there's no need to see a GP.
Most people feel better within a week. You should consider seeing your GP if you're at a higher risk of becoming more seriously ill. This includes people who:. If you're otherwise healthy, you can look after yourself at home by resting, keeping warm and drinking plenty of water to avoid dehydration.
If you feel unwell and have a fever, you can take paracetamol or anti-inflammatory medicines such as ibuprofen to lower your temperature and relieve aches. Children under 16 shouldn't be given aspirin. Print content Print with images and other media.
Print text only. Print Cancel. Should you go to work? But when and for how long you should avoid work depends on a few things. Why you should stay home and rest Some of us really struggle to stay home from work when we're sick.
That can be because we don't receive sick pay or don't have much flexibility. And it's not just bad for your workplace. Email address. Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 1 minute 57 seconds 1 m 57 s.
Tempted to stock up on vitamins as cold and flu season hits? Read this before you do. A spoonful of honey can help keep cough medicine away. What is a fever and how does it affect you? We're in the middle of flu season. This guide will help you navigate it. We're told to exercise, sleep more and eat better. But it's not an option for all of us.
Twenty feet or more. In fact, Prevention Magazine recently put this question to Lydia Bourouiba, assistant professor of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The verdict:. After looking at high-speed images of sneezes and coughs, as well as conducting lab experiments and mathematical models, Bourouiba found small droplets travel up to times further than larger ones think centimeters versus meters —and suspend in the air indefinitely.
Should these droplets suspend near, say, an air conditioner, they can be transmitted from building to building, she says. In , however, researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada tested such protocols , albeit with a small group of volunteers, and measured what happened to pathogens of different sizes when someone who coughed followed standard cough etiquette, including the crook-of-the-arm method.
Flu germs also jump to others when left to linger on door handles, printer buttons, or other shared tools and furniture. As Peter Shearer, M. It sets you up for possibly a bacterial infection [such as bacterial pneumonia] on top of [flu symptoms]. Yes, try to see the doctor within 48 hours to be treated with Tamiflu, an antiviral medication, Shearer also told Time.
But stay away from the ER, he cautioned. You might infect people whose immune systems are already weak. By the way, the symptoms of a flu, according to the Center for Disease Control are: fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills, tiredness, and possible diarrhea and vomiting.
So, no. Fair enough.
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