Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Anh (Hanoi) took her 4-year-old daughter to the emergency room at night after many days of unrelenting high fever, lethargy, and seizures.
4 days before that, the baby had fever, wheezing and loss of appetite. The family thought the baby had a common flu, so they did not go to the doctor and bought fever-reducing medicine for the baby to take. However, the baby's condition did not improve but became increasingly worse, requiring hospitalization.
After many tests, the child was diagnosed with influenza B, along with pneumonia, the risk of encephalitis, and hospitalization was indicated.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan Anh's 6-year-old grandson (64 years old, in Ha Dong) was also hospitalized after 5 days of high fever that did not go down. The parents went on a business trip, and the baby was taken care of by his grandmother. Seeing the child's fever and cough, she subjectively thought that the boy had common seasonal flu and would recover if he was treated at home.
On the 5th day of fever, the boy had intermittent fever, vomiting a lot, and lethargy. At this time, she took her child to the hospital for a checkup. The doctor concluded that the child had influenza B.
Children hospitalized with influenza B are on the rise.
Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoai An, Director of An Viet Hospital (Hanoi), said that the number of children hospitalized with influenza B has tended to increase in recent times.
Influenza B is a type of seasonal flu (4 types A, B, C, D), a virus that often causes respiratory infections. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, studies have shown that influenza B accounts for about 40% and influenza A accounts for 60% of seasonal flu cases.
Influenza B viruses change very little and change more slowly than influenza A viruses. The spring-summer transition is when seasonal flu rages, including influenza B.
Like influenza A, influenza B is spread from person to person through small droplets (containing influenza virus) in the air when an infected person coughs, sneezes or talks. Children who touch surfaces contaminated with virus-containing droplets and then touch their mouth, nose or eyes will become infected.
The incubation period of influenza B is from 1 day to 4 days from the time of infection with the influenza virus. Children and people with weakened immune systems may have a longer incubation period.
When infected with influenza B, the symptoms are the same as those of influenza A, including: fever, dry cough, sore throat, headache, body aches. In some children, additional symptoms will appear such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
According to Associate Professor, Dr. Hoai An, most cases of children with influenza B are mild and recover on their own, but the virus can also cause serious complications such as pneumonia caused by influenza virus or bacterial superinfection. Some children experience rare, more serious complications such as encephalitis, myocarditis, rhabdomyolysis, and multi-organ failure.
The expert advises parents to monitor if their child has influenza B. When seeing the following symptoms, parents should take their child to the hospital:
– Children with high fever ≥ 39,5 degrees Celsius use fever-reducing drugs and physical methods to reduce heat (cool room 26-29 degrees, apply warm water compresses aggressively) but do not reduce the temperature. Children with high fever ≥ 38,5 degrees Celsius for more than 3 days do not tend to get better.
– Children breathe rapidly, breathe abnormally: wheezing, wheezing, chest indentation, respiratory muscle contraction.
– Fast pulse compared to age (when the child does not have a fever), purple veins, cold limbs (when the child does not have a high fever)
Associate Professor Hoai An recommends that, at the time of sensitive seasons, parents need to take good care of their children, especially young children. Parents need to increase their children's nutrition to increase their resistance, and flu vaccination is the most useful measure.
