Key differences between adenovirus and 'super flu' - as cases for both surge
Rhianna Benson
Featured Image Credit: Getty Stock Image
As adenovirus cases continue to soar around the world, health experts have noticed that the potentially-deadly condition is sometimes being mistaken for another ailment altogether - an enigma being referred to as the 'super flu'.
For those unfamiliar with the former, adenovirus describes a DNA virus that slowly takes its toll on a person's upper and lower respiratory tract, alongside a number of other organs.
This could include a patient's eyes, their gastrointestinal tract, and their kidneys.
As Dr Deborah Lee at Dr Fox Online Pharmacy recently told Cosmopolitan: "It is spread from breathing in infected aerosol droplets, by inadvertently rubbing the virus directly into the eye, or via the faecal-oral route (not handwashing after using the toilet),"
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"It spreads rapidly in places where people are in close proximity."
She added: "The virus is resistant to soap and many other commonly used cleaning products."
The most comforting aspect of adenovirus is that, after infection, the vast majority of patients have the power to bounce back from these symptoms after a week or two, given that they're actually quite similar to those exhibited with common colds.
As such, most patients across the globe will suffer from the likes of a fever, a runny nose, a sore throat, a cough, shortness of breath and enlarged cervical lymph nodes in the neck.
More severe infections could also see patients endure the likes of conjunctivitis, ear pain, diarrhoea, vomiting, tummy pain, or a urinary tract infection.
This said, however, there are small groups within society in whom the risk of being knocked off their feet to a more extreme degree is hugely heightened.
"Those most at risk are babies and children under five, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone who is immunocompromised," Dr Lee noted.
Despite patients often suffering symptoms similar to those exhibited in common flu cases, it's important to know when patients are instead battling the flu - or worse, the dreaded 'super flu' that has been doing the rounds of late.
The amount of time that a person remains unwell can prove an initial indicator of whether a person is suffering from adenovirus, or a 'normal' - albeit, nasty - flu, with the latter 'quite often' coming on 'suddenly, over a period of hours, with a high fever and [intense] symptoms', Lee adds.
On top of those already mentioned earlier, the 'normal' flu often comes hand-in-hand with a high temperature (between 38°C and 40°C), a headache, and extreme tiredness.
Other key differences between the two are that an adenovirus infection can occur all year round - whereas flu tends to occur in the winter - and the former can be a common cause of pink eye.
As we say, the former is also known to trigger gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhoea, and is less likely to result in more serious complications compared to the latter.
It's not just 'normal' influenza that doctors say should be distinguished from adenovirus, but the current 'super flu', the dramatic symptoms of which are currently wreaking havoc left, right and centre.
The latter is caused by the H3N2 virus and 'causes more severe infection' than other winter illnesses observed in the UK.
"Data shows that in the past, H3N2 viruses have been associated more often with hospital admissions and death from flu, in adults aged 65 and over and in young children, than other flu subtypes," Lee explained.
When it comes to the difference between the 'super flu' and adenovirus, she added that there's not much in it, noting that they show a very similar array of symptoms.
What Lee did emphasise, however, is that 'super flu' is considered by medical experts to be much 'more severe'. Not only will your sore throat be more accurately described as an 'agonising throat', but your aches and pains might feel slightly more bed-bounding.