 [ Symptoms ] what activities and sports provide teens with good aerobic exercise [ Disease ] people erroneously refer to many different viral illnesses as “the flu ” they call diarrhea and vomiting “stomach flu ” when actually influenza has nothing to do with it when you get the flu you know it at first you think you are going to die then you hope that you do die to end your suffering perhaps the most profound symptom of true influenza is the body aches you feel like a truck ran over you there is often a high fever and of course sore throat and headaches sometimes even your hair hurts if you look and feel like hell then you probably have the flu if your child wakes up with classic flu symptoms do not send them to school most community epidemics start in the schools so do not be the one who starts it just like the rapid strep test many medical offices have a rapid influenza test if there is any doubt that a person has influenza i will order this quick and easy office test if the influenza test is positive i can at least offer the person some antiviral medication like tamiflu tamiflu does not cure the flu but it does reduce the severity and shorten the course by a few days no one can really predict the severity of this year is flu season i certainly hope we have a mild one if enough people get vaccinated early perhaps we can contain the spread of this traditional killer again i am amused when people stay he “just has the flu ” over 35 000 people in the u s die each year from the flu in 1918 several million people died during a global influenza pandemic and it can happen again we all thought the h1n1 was going to be another big one but fortunately it was effectively contained do your part and get flu vaccines for yourself and your family it is cheap insurance that can save your life of the life of someone you love