TODAY – Quenten Thomas, 27, a father of three young kids in Maryville, Tennessee, died last week due to complications of the flu.
He was coughing and having trouble breathing, his father, Robert Thomas, told NBC News.
This flu season, some doctors have seen more severe flu symptoms than usual in young people, sometimes even if they got their flu shot, NBC News reported.
Dr. Dhaval Desai, director of Hospital Medicine at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital in Atlanta, told NBC News that he’s recently treated people of a range of ages with severe flu symptoms.
Desai himself struggled with a severe bout of influenza and ended up in the emergency room in November despite being vaccinated.
Common flu symptoms include:
- Fever
- Cough
- Sore throat
- Headache
- Runny nose
- Fatigue
- Muscle ache
Most people who get the flu will recover within a week, but some are at a higher risk for serious complications from the disease, particularly those with underlying conditions like asthma, heart disease and diabetes, as well as older adults.
Rarely, the flu can be severe — and even deadly — for young, otherwise healthy people.
Desai and Dr. Rachael Lee, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama, told NBC News that some of the more severe flu symptoms that they’ve seen this season include:
- Dehydration
- Wheezing
- Severe head and muscle aches
- High fevers, sometimes staying above 104
- Fatigue
With the flu continuing to spread alongside other respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus, experts are urging people to take precautions, especially getting vaccinated and wearing a mask …
