It’s one thing to hear about cases of the so-called “super flu” skyrocketing in the country, but it’s another to actually deal with it. If you’ve recently experienced the flu, you may be wondering when you’ll feel like yourself again. Unfortunately, doctors say it can take time.
The flu can cause uncomfortable symptoms like fever, cough, and sore throat when you’re initially sick, but you may also be sidelined with lingering fatigue and generally feeling off after your original symptoms have cleared. “Once influenza grabs you, it can hold onto you for a longer period of time than the acute illness,” William Schaffner, MD, an infectious disease specialist and professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, tells SELF.
Okay, but why? And, ballpark, how long are we talking about here? This is how long it takes to recover from the “super flu,” according to doctors, plus what you can do to speed up your recovery.
The flu is no joke right now.
The flu has always been a potentially serious illness. But the strain of the flu that’s circulating right now—which is called subclade K—is a strong version of the virus that is better at evading the previous immunity you might have, whether it’s from the flu vaccine or having had other versions of the flu. As a result, more people are vulnerable to getting infected and feeling horrible for longer than usual when they get sick.
It’s too early to have data on how long most people are sick with subclade K, but Dr. Schaffner says he’s heard anecdotes of this strain causing illness that lasts longer than your typical flu. “The dominant strain out there is part of the H3N2 family, and that usually causes more severe illness,” he says.
You can expect to be laid up for a while with this flu.
It’s tough for doctors to say exactly how long it will take for you to feel better when you have the flu, given that things like your individual immune response and underlying health conditions come into play. But there is a ballpark that you can expect.
“While the acute symptoms such as fever might abate in a few days, fatigue and [feeling off] may persist for a week or longer,” Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells SELF. There are a few reasons for this. “The virus sets up an inflammatory response—that’s how the body fights off the virus,” Dr. Schaffner says. But after the initial illness starts to fade, that inflammation can keep going and continue to fuel symptoms like a sore throat, dry cough, and just generally feeling lousy, he says. “That undoubtedly can last for a while,” Dr. Schaffner says.
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