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Each influenza season , about8 % of people in the United Statesget sick with influenza . Most convalesce from the sickness , but thousands die annually of seasonal flu . In the last decade , there have beenbetween 21,000 and 51,000 death from flueach time of year , with the exception of 2020 - 2021 when flu activity wasunusually crushed .
Certain groups aremost likely to develop serious flu infectionsthat could lead to death : children under 5 , adults 65 and onetime , multitude with chronic health conditions and pregnant people .
Seasonal flu infections can lead to dangerous knock-on complications, including overblown immune reactions, lung damage and heart inflammation.
But how do people actually die of the flu ?
There are many way the great unwashed can pop off ofthe flu . flu viruses can inflict serious scathe on a orbit of variety meat and system throughout the soundbox , including the lungs , heart and soul , brain and overall immune system , saidDr . Akiko Iwasaki , a prof of immunobiology and molecular , cellular , and developmental biology at Yale University and tec of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute .
Related : How long is the flu contagious ?
Young children are at higher risk of serious flu infections than your average healthy adult. Health officials recommend that everyone over the age of 6 months be vaccinated for flu each year.
These life - threaten complications includepneumonia , which inflames the air sacs of the lung and can do them to fill with pus . Flu virus can directly invade the lungs , cause what ’s called viral pneumonia . In summation , by detrimental cells that describe the respiratory parcel of land , the viruses can launch the door for bacterium in the trunk to overgrow , drivinginflammationandpossibly bacterial pneumonia .
" These are the bacterium that usually colonise the upper respiratory tract of people without have any disease , " Iwasaki said . After someone gets the flu , these bacteria can gain a foothold in the lung and multiply .
That ’s partly because influenza virus make the cells lining the respiratory tract more vulnerable to bacterial penetration and infection , and then " bacteria can proliferate and cause harm more easily,“Dr . Octavio Ramilo , chair of the Department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children ’s Research Hospital , told Live Science .
grave pneumonia can also causeacute respiratory suffering syndrome(ARDS ) , in which the lungs accumulate fluid , become sozzled and ca n’t expand well .
grippe complication do n’t only affect the lung , but also the eye . Myocarditisandacute pericarditisrespectively kindle the center ’s muscle and the sack that surrounds the harmonium . These conditions can affect the meat ’s ability to pump blood and cut off its rhythm method , sometimeswith venomous result .
influenza infection can spark myocarditis because flu viruses inflame and damage the cells that line blood vessel , Ramilo said . The accurate causal agency for pericarditis is unclear , but the tissue typically becomes inflamed follow a viral transmission like the flu .
colligate : Could we ever eliminate the influenza ?
In rare cases , the influenza can also lead toencephalitis , or swelling of the nous . This precondition , which is estimated to occur inabout 4 in 100,000 childrenin the U.S. each year , can conduct to serious complications admit convulsion , coma and expiry .
scientist do n’t know incisively how the grippe leads to encephalitis , buta leading hypothesissuggests the infection causes the eubstance to free a flood of cytokines , which are molecules that cause inflammation . These molecules can then enter the brain because the Hammond organ ’s protective roadblock has been compromised , potentially bythe cytokines themselves . However , more studies are needed to affirm that theory .
flu can also pass tosepsis , a life - threaten , body - all-embracing resistant response . Flu viruses can trigger this immune reaction on their own , but they can also enable bacteria to enter the bloodstream by go down tissue paper in the body , Ramilo noted . Those bloodborne bacteria can then spark sepsis . Some study suggestinfluenza - link up pneumonia may provoke the risk of sepsis up to sixfold , compared to a flu infection without pneumonia ; that aver , this knottiness is relatively uncommon overall .
Who is at highest risk of dying from the flu?
A major reason why Old adults , young child , multitude with inveterate aesculapian conditions and meaning people are vulnerable to deadly flu complication is the province of their immune system of rules .
sure-enough adult experience senescence — essentially biological senescence that leads to a decline in cell function that hinders the immune system , Ramilo said . In pregnant people , theimmune system lowers its defensesso as not to snipe the maturate fetus . Thus , the great unwashed become more vulnerable to flu - link complications during pregnancy , he explain .
unseasoned children ’s immune organisation have n’t encounter many germs before . " The immune reply to the [ influenza ] computer virus have to be develop from scratch , " Iwasaki said . Because a child ’s resistant system has no memory of flu virus , " the virus has the chance to multiply before the resistant response can take in up , " she said .
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inveterate conditions — such as asthma , kidney disease , HIV / AIDS and cancer — raise the endangerment of grippe complications by compromising either the resistant or respiratory organization , or both . The flu can also aggravate continuing conditions , increasing the peril of death from other causes .
Thankfully , influenza vaccine can help keep severe flu infection and their potentially deadly knock - on effects . For hoi polloi who do develop severe flu contagion , treatmentslike Tamiflu can dramatically lowerthe hazard of death if provided quickly .
This clause is for informational purpose only and is not meant to offer aesculapian advice .
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