For most people, the flu is a miserable couple of days filled with body aches, fever, chills, cough, sore throat, stuffy nose, bad television, chicken soup and over-the-counter remedies, but for others—mostly the very young and very old—it can be a fast track to pneumonia, hospitalization and death.
The influenza season of 2017-2018 was especially difficult, the worst since the swine flu of 2009, with widespread illness and a record number of hospitalizations.