The majority of young, healthy people will not develop flu complications.
However, well-recognised complications can affect the following high-risk people:
-
the very young, particularly toddlers younger than a year
- the very old (more than 90 percent of deaths related to influenza occur in the elderly, 65 years or older)
- pregnant women (mid to late pregnancy)
- those with heart disease
- those with respiratory (chest) disease
- those with HIV, or others who are immune compromised (e.g. people with tuberculosis.)
Reviewed (2006) by Dr Jane Yeats MBChB, BSc(Med)(Hons)Biochem, FCPathSA(Virology).