senile influenza

Influenza (commonly referred to as flu) is an acute respiratory infectious disease caused by influenza viruses. Clinically, it manifests as sudden onset of fever, generalized muscle aches, and mild respiratory symptoms, with a short course and self-limiting nature. It can occur as local outbreaks or widespread epidemics. Elderly patients with influenza are prone to complicating pneumonia, and those who are advanced in age, frail, or have underlying cardiopulmonary diseases often have a more severe prognosis. Fever in elderly influenza patients is not as high as in younger adults; the most prominent early symptoms are headache, arthralgia, and myalgia. Muscle pain mainly involves the long muscles of the limbs and back. Ocular muscle pain is often present when looking laterally. Elderly patients commonly experience photophobia, ocular redness and burning sensation, nausea, anorexia, abdominal distension, and diarrhea. Upper respiratory catarrhal symptoms such as nasal congestion and rhinorrhea are relatively mild and are often masked by systemic toxemic symptoms. After 2 to 3 days, fever and systemic symptoms gradually subside, with cough, no sputum, often a retrosternal burning sensation, and sometimes dyspnea and palpitations.