How many influenza cases are there?

3-5 million yearly cases

Not too many people know that influenza, commonly known as “the flu”, is an infectious disease of birds and mammals.  Believe it or not, influenza spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics, resulting in about three to five million yearly cases of severe illness and about 250,000 to 500,000 yearly deaths.  Unfortunately, in some years there were even millions of deaths.  It is important to know that the most common symptoms of influenza are chills, fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, headache, coughing, weakness/fatigue and general discomfort.