Bangalore: Haven't you noticed that your family, friends and colleagues are going around with red eyes, leaky noses and hacking coughs? The sudden change in weather has brought with it a bout of viral infection and a number of people in the city are down with mild to severe infection in the form of fever, sore throat and a general feeling of not being well.

"We have been examining a lot of such cases in the past few days and it is most likely to be caused by the sudden warm weather.

It is a form of viral infection but it is difficult to pinpoint which virus it is," said T.D. Prakash, ENT specialist at Victoria Hospital.

He said that usually the H. Influenza which causes viral flu among children and adults, is responsible for such infections.

"This virus is adept at changing different strains and a person who was earlier resistant to one strain can get affected by another strain."

Symptoms

Symptoms include fever, sore throat, running nose, itching sensation in the throat, headache, body ache and sometimes difficulty in swallowing. If the infection is not treated early, it could lead to a bacterial infection, which could be more severe.

"If there is a bacterial infection, the patient will have persistent fever, redness and irritation of the throat and enlarged lymph nodes.

The important thing is to give the patients, especially children, plenty of water so that they do not get dehydrated," Dr. Prakash advises.

According to Kumaresh Krishnamoorthy, senior consultant in ENT, Apollo Hospitals, the first indication of a viral infection is usually scratchiness in the throat. Sore throats may also be the result of irritation caused by secretions from the nose draining down the throat in association with a cold or allergy.

Frequent sore throats may be due of tonsillitis, which is an infection of the tonsils, he said.

"If the infection is severe it may lead to `strep throat,' an infection caused by a particular strain of streptococcus bacteria. This infection can also damage the heart valves (rheumatic fever) and kidneys (nephritis). Because of these possible complications, a strep throat should be treated at the earliest," Dr. Krishnamoorthy said.

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