If you catch the flu, stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone without fever-reducing medication. Get plenty of rest, drink a lot of liquids and avoid using alcohol and tobacco. Also, you can take medications to relieve symptoms (but never give aspirin to ill children or teenagers without first speaking to your doctor).
If you are at high risk from complications of flu, you should consult your health care provider when your flu symptoms begin. Your doctor may choose to use certain antiviral drugs to treat the flu. Click here to learn who is most at risk for flu complications.
Who should go to the hospital
If your flu symptoms are unusually severe, you should go to the emergency room. You should NOT go to the emergency room if you are only mildly ill. Emergency warning signs:
Children: Fast breathing or trouble breathing; bluish skin color; not drinking enough fluids; not waking up or not interacting; being so irritable that the child does not want to be held; flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough; and fever with a rash.
Adults: Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath; pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen; sudden dizziness; confusion; and severe or persistent vomiting.
Click here for more information on how long ill people should be away from others.
Treatment
Antiviral drugs are prescription medicines that fight against the flu by keeping flu viruses from reproducing in your body. This season, the recommendation is to use antiviral drugs to treat people who are very sick (hospitalized) and people who are sick with flu-like symptoms who are at an increased risk of serious flu complications. Most people have been able to recover at home from 2009 H1N1 and seasonal flu without needing medical care. For treatment, antiviral drugs work best if started within the first 2 days of symptoms. You must consult your doctor before using them. Antibiotics do not work against influenza but your doctor may prescribe them to fight infections with bacteria that sometimes follow influenza infections.
Click here for more information on antiviral medication
Click here for EUA for Tamiflu: Fact Sheet for patients and parents.
Click here for more information, review the Revised Recommendations for the Use of Influenza Antiviral Drugs.