Many people still taking influenza outbreak lightly

KUALA LUMPUR: Worse than dengue – that was how Nur Ashikin Abdul Aziz felt about influenza after contracting the illness during a trip to Japan.

“The infection quickly weakened my immune system and totally zapped my energy. Within 24 hours I had become bedridden.

“I had never felt my energy drain so fast, not even when I had dengue,” the 32year-old journalist told Bernama of the illness which she contracted last year.

Nur Ashikin had gone on a Japan-East Asia Student and Youth Exchange Programme along with a group of journalists. Unfortunately, many of them failed to heed the organiser's reminders of the necessity of wearing face masks and guarding their personal hygiene as Japan was at the time experiencing an influenza outbreak.

“I had already begun experiencing malaise upon reaching the home of my foster parents in Hokkaido. I initially dismissed it as the start of a regular fever. When the fever persisted the next day, my foster mother brought me to the pharmacy to buy some medicine but it did not help with my symptoms.

“I eventually had to call the organisers and they brought me to the hospital. It was then that I found out that I, along with several other journalists from my group, had contracted influenza A,” she recounted.

Nur Ashikin said the group was immediately treated with several nasal and oral medication. The prompt treatment did little to reduce her fever which at the time was over 39 degrees Celsius. However, it did help alleviate some of her other symptoms as well as those experienced by her group. As a result, they did not require hospitalisation.

“The organisers had to give us separate rooms and constantly monitor our temperature to prevent the illness from progressing. The fever subsided after several days,” she said.

The programme activities had to be halted as nearly half of the media group were ill with influenza. They were sent back to their home countries as soon as they recovered, said Nur Ashikin, who now understood the necessity of the influenza vaccination.

It was true that many Malaysians did not take influenza seriously, said the Malaysian Society of Infectious Diseases and Chemotherapy (MSIDC) President Dr Zamberi Sekawi. This was because their understanding of the illness was still poor.

The majority of people often confuse symptoms of the common cold with that of influenza, also known as the flu. This is because both illnesses share common symptoms like fever, cough and cold.

However, the symptoms of influenza can be more severe as it includes persistent high fever, cough, joint and muscle pain and sore throat. Patients can also suffer life-threatening complications such as pneumonia, meningitis and asthma attacks if they do not seek treatment early.

“This is different from the common cold, which is not life threatening. Influenza is certainly not an illness to be taken lightly,” he said.

Malaysians needed to understand the gravity of the illness because influenza had been pandemic in the past and could become pandemic in the future, said Dr Zamberi, who is also the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Dean at Universiti Putra Malaysia.

“Anyone can get it. Those without chronic illnesses can recover from the flu within a few days. However, what worries us most are those in high risk groups as the illness can make them more vulnerable to severe complications and even death,” he said.

Those in the high risk groups are children under five years old, pregnant women, senior citizens over 65 years old, those with respiratory illnesses like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetic and heart patients as well as tourists.

Influenza is vaccine-preventable but many people, including those in the high risk groups, refuse to get the vaccination.

In addition to poor awareness of the illness, many also assume that influenza is only prevalent in countries with four seasons. However, the illness has yesterday made its way to tropical countries like Malaysia due to the affordability and accessibility of air travel.

There are four types of influenza, namely influenza A (H1N1, H3N2), influenza B (B/Yamagata and B/ Victoria).