If you have severe illness or you are at high risk for flu complications, contact your health care provider or seek medical care immediately. Your health care provider will determine whether flu testing or treatment is needed.

In children emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• Fast breathing or trouble breathing
• Bluish or gray skin color
• Not drinking enough fluids
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Not waking up or not interacting
• Being so irritable that the child does not want to be held
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

In adults, emergency warning signs that need urgent medical attention include:

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Pain or pressure in the chest or abdomen
• Sudden dizziness
• Confusion
• Severe or persistent vomiting
• Flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough

Certain medical conditions can predispose a person to complications or more serious illness if they get the flu. If you have one the conditions below and think you have the flu, you should get medical care right away.

• Lung disease
• HIV/AIDS
• Heart disease
• Chronic kidney failure
• Diabetes
• Immunosuppressive medications like steroids or arthritis medications.
• Organ transplant
• Chemotherapy for cancer

More on Immunosupressive medications
If you are on immunosuppressive medications for another condition, this flu pandemic is not a good reason to stop those. But you can be quite meticulous in taking other precautions to reduce your exposure and susceptibility. You should read the other items on this page carefully. Since you are at risk of worse illness from swine flu or seasonal flu, you should get medical attention immediately if you notice symptoms of flu.