[TOPIC] The Flu

Influenza is a respiratory illness, so any stomach/gastrointestinal issues would not typically be present. People often refer to the "stomach flu," but that's just a popular term, not a medical one - stomach flu =/= influenza.

As to the other symptoms, I know that the ones you list are all characteristic of influenza. I'm no expert, but I don't think the character would HAVE to have a stuffy nose or headaches. Wikipedia says that 70-90% of flu cases involve nasal congestion (it's the chart entitled "Highest sensitive individual findings for diagnosing influenza," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza - there are a lot of pretty detailed charts from the CDC if you're interested), but that leaves 10-30% that don't. I think you're good to go!

(We just read a chapter on the flu in my medical anthropology class... what are the odds!)

If your character is to die from a regular flu virus then the symptoms you listed would be very good for how it starts.

Aches, fever, chills, fatigue are how my one really serious bout of flu started. I only vomited once because of heat exhaustion as a result of my very high fever.

For it to be fatal, there usually has to be a secondary bacterial infection (H. influenzae is the common one) which causes pneumonia. If she does not seek medical treatment for pneumonia then she has a decent chance of dying from it.

For Pneumonia you can add some of these symptoms:
Shortness of breath
Chest pain, especially when inhaling
More coughing, sometimes productive(that is phlegmy and gross)
Fever may increase
Cyanosis - the skin turns purplish and dark because the blood is not getting enough oxygen (this is a *very bad* sign generally).

How old is she? Is she healthy, able to rest, able to seek medical care? If she's sickly, under stress or unable to rest then she won't be able to fight off the diseases very well. If she is a child then she could develop Reyes Syndrome on top of the flu and that would also do well for killing her (especially if she's given aspirin to treat her fever and aches)

--Locket (I used to do research with infectious diseases!)

Locket
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I draw and paint stuff. http://thornyart.etsy.com

She could, of course, progress through the symptoms rapidly (ala the 'Spanish Flu' Epidemic of 1918). Beginning symptoms in the morning and thick, horrific pneumonia by night. That might be a good model to go on if she's supposed to be a healthy adult.

Those are all possible symptoms of the flu. The flu is kind of mix-n-match with symptoms. If you're interested in the flu, an interesting book is "Flu" by Gina Kolata, and also "The Great Influenza" by John M. Barry.

The flu can have weird symptoms. The 1918 flu had this weird symptom of coughing up frothy, sometimes-bloody lung fluid.

Nano 2005: Legend of Jael (Won)
Nano 2006: Diary in the Attic (Won)
Nano 2007: Reel Smuggling (Won)
Nano 2008: Those We Lost (A challenge, but it will work--I've got a winning pattern happening)

She was a relatively healthy adult of 21 about six months before she got sick. Then she gets sent off the a ghetto like area and has next to nothing to eat and may even have a child before hand(before she was sick).

I was debating on giving her Pneumonia but now I defiantly will. There is no way she could get medical treatment and the time period she is living in has about middle ages medical advancements.

Haha, I'm in business now! Thanks for all the help.

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