Chinanews.com, Beijing, January 1 (Wei Xianghui) Following the first stream, the second stream has attracted public attention in recent days. According to many experts, the symptoms of influenza B are slightly milder than those of influenza A, and the occurrence of outbreaks is generally low.

"Stream A just hit Stream B again"

A few days ago, a news that "stream A just hit stream B again" appeared on social media hot searches.

Zhao Wei, deputy director and deputy chief physician of the outpatient department of Hangzhou Children's Hospital, said in an interview with the media that the proportion of children diagnosed with influenza A has dropped from 30% to 20% recently, but there is a significant upward trend in influenza B, from the original 2% to 15%.

Zhongxin Health also learned about a similar situation from a number of hospitals in Beijing. Li Ran, deputy chief physician of the Department of Infection and Clinical Microbiology of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, said that the number of patients with influenza A has decreased relatively compared with some time ago, while the number of influenza B patients has increased slightly.

According to the monitoring data of the 51st week (December 12-18) of the "Influenza Surveillance Weekly" released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Influenza Center, the rising trend of influenza epidemic in the north and south of the country has been contained, the south is at a high fluctuation level, and the north has begun to decline.

The picture shows Wei Xianghui in the fever clinic of the hospital

What are the symptoms of influenza B?

"Influenza A and B are more common in humans, which is often referred to as seasonal influenza, especially during the annual flu season. Li Ran introduced to Zhongxin Health that influenza A and influenza B both belong to influenza, but the classification is different. According to the World Health Organization's nomenclature of influenza viruses, they are divided into A, B, C, and D according to the type of virus, and in China, A, B, C, and D.

On social media, a patient said, "Yiliu is the king of kings, and his whole body hurts to the point where he hurts in the cracks of his bones." Some patients said that they could have a high fever overnight. Li Ran said that from the perspective of clinical manifestations, the symptoms of influenza B will be slightly milder than that of influenza A, but there will also be fever, body aches, sore throat, cough and other symptoms.

Li Tong, chief physician of the Department of Infectious Diseases of Beijing You'an Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, once introduced to Zhongxin Health that influenza A and flu B can have high fever, with rapid onset, and generally have a high fever the next day after uncomfortable symptoms.

Li Tong once said that the infectiousness and clinical symptoms of influenza B are similar to those of influenza A, but influenza A mutates faster, and most people have a shorter protection period of immunity even after being infected with influenza A, while influenza B virus is not highly mutated, and the protection obtained after infection lasts longer.

Netizens shared their feelings about the disease on social media.

Doctor: The probability of an outbreak of influenza B is low

"Relatively speaking, influenza A is more likely to cause a high incidence of influenza cases and spreads faster, while influenza B has a low probability of outbreaks and spreads relatively slowly. Li Tong once mentioned that although the symptoms of influenza B are slightly milder than influenza A, children are more likely to have gastrointestinal symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea, and the treatment method is the same.

How to determine whether influenza A or B is influenza virus antigen or nucleic acid detection? Li Ran introduced that it is mainly through the method of influenza virus antigen or nucleic acid detection. Patients can purchase influenza virus antigen detection reagents by themselves and do them at home, or they can take influenza virus nucleic acid testing through the platform. But in her view, in terms of treatment, both influenza A and influenza B are given anti-influenza virus drugs.

She said that influenza is a self-limiting disease, and if the patient is a young person with mild symptoms and no underlying diseases, it is generally enough to take fever-reducing drugs for symptomatic treatment. However, it is recommended that patients with underlying lung diseases, immunodeficiency, diabetes, obesity, pregnant women, and patients on dialysis should go to the hospital as soon as possible.

"The easiest and most effective way to prevent it is to get a flu shot. Li Ran said. (ENDS)