Only one significant factor separates pandemic influenza from the flu that visits human every year: immunity.
"If you understand seasonal influenza, you understand 90% of pandemic flu, just like that," said Dr. Howard Rodenberg, director of health for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Rosenberg spoke Monday night at a public Flu Forum held at the Lyon County Courthouse.
Seasonal flus come around regularly enough that most humans have some immunity to varieties of existing flus.
The difference between those and pandemic flu is that pendemic flu "is one that humans have not seen before," Rosenberg said. "... So, we're dealing with the fact that nobody has seen this strain, so nobody has any immunity."
Rodenberg took a few minutes to explain flu basics to an audience made up primarily of health-care workers and others who would be affected if a pandemic strikes.
The symptoms of all flus are the same: sudden onset, fever more than 102 degrees Fahrenheit, all-over body aches, headache, excessive tiredness, and a dough that often is dry and unproductive because flu causes lower-respiratory problems. Physicians usually will not prescribe antibiotics for the flu because they are ineffective, he said.
Some antiviral treatments, such as Tamiflu and Semmetrel, are available, though Rodenberg did not recommend them as panaceas for the flu.
"Last flu season, 100% (of the flu viruses) were resistant to Symmetrel," he said. "Twenty percent were resistant to Tamiflu."
Antivirals need to be taken within 24 to 48 hours of onset of the flu, and people often cannot get the antivirals in time to be effective.
Some have chosen to take antivirals regularly in the hope of preventing the flu.
"You have a better chance of getting nausea, vomiting and diarrhea," Rodenberg said, name side-effects of one antiviral medication.
Rodenberg said it is important to know what the term influenza means.
"We all kind of use flu as a wastebasket term of anything that happens in winter," he said. "Stomach flu. It's not the flu. Flu is a respiratory virus." The common cold is "a rhino virus or a cold virus, it's not influenza."
While nothing guarantees a defense against the flu, Rodenberg said there are preventive measures to improve the odds.
"The things your grandparents told you are actually the right things to do," he said. "They weren't wrong on this sort of thing."
1. Wash hands with soap and water, pre-moistened cleansing napkins, or gels for 15 to 20 seconds to remove viruses.
2. Cover your mouth when you cough.
3. Stay home when you're sick, and keep children home when they are sick.
4. Avoid crowds during outbreaks.
5. Maintain healthy habits, like eating right, getting plenty of sleep, and keeping high blood pressure or diabetes under control as much as possible.
6. Get a vaccination against the flu.
"Vaccines don't cause the flu," he said. The flu-like reactions that occasionally come a day or two after a vaccination is "simply your body revving up the immune system."
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