Latest type of flu??

leeside11 · 17-03-2020 12:36pm

Had a bad flu 1st week of February, chills headaches and persistent cough. Took 2 weeks to pass.
No one else in the house had it so I'm hoping that it was flu and nothing more sinister.
A month on and everyone is fine here tg.

17-03-2020 12:51pm

I never usually get sick.
Had a dose about 4 weeks ago.

Cough, sore throat, chills, sweats, fever, burning & bloodshot eyes.
Spent 24 hours in bed.
During the night, severe nausea.(all night long)

Ficheall · 17-03-2020 1:46pm

Cherrycola wrote: »

I haven’t been outside the door since last thursday, closed my business on Friday, OH is the only one who leaves for work/shopping, goes straight upstairs when he comes home to change, shower, no panic buying, we’re in this for the long haul.

So no foolishness here, even if we did have it then, we don’t know that and never will. I’m not taking chances with mine and my families health, because even if we did have it what’s to say we wouldn’t catch it again, or be carriers to infect someone else?!
Don’t assume we’re all members of the Ar’ah it’s Grand brigade!

It doesn't have to be you - it could be anyone reading such posts here or on Facebook or on whatsapp groups, or wherever this notion is being spread.
As with the "It's just a bad flu" brigade (including such luminaries as Trump), it will lead to unwarranted complacency. Fortunately, many of the "It's just a bad flu" crowd have been forced to cop the fck on over the last couple of weeks.

I guess you're just idly speculating, as opposed to having any firm belief in what you're posting, because otherwise such unbridled optimism would surely have also lent itself to the belief that you had acquired immunity and were thus free to go about your life as usual, which you aren't doing; so, balanced against the risk of someone less cautious becoming complacent after reading your speculation, what positive effect do you expect your spreading of this theory to have?

Raconteuse · 17-03-2020 8:32pm

Don't have a go at them though - many have asked it.

Few would be stupid enough to decide it must have been covid-19. And those who are that stupid are gonna be stupid in other ways anyway.

I'm amazed reading about elderly people being complacent. Refusing to keep away from their grandchildren and the like. It's awfully hard for them but it's better than getting ill. Small children tend to spread germs.

lainey_d_123 · 17-03-2020 8:49pm

Ficheall wrote: »

Well, I guess everyone got it wrong. It didn't actually originate in China where it killed thousands of people, we actually had it in Ireland back in November and it was grand.

What are the statistics for flu-related deaths in Ireland over the past few months? I'd be interested in seeing those.

It was first discovered in Wuhan in what, November, December? I don't think it's ludicrous to think it was doing the rounds in Ireland by January, when a lot of people came down with a weird flu-like illness.

Xertz · 17-03-2020 9:09pm

One thing to bear in mind is that a huge array of illnesses bring on 'flu like' symptoms. It's so much of a common sign of illness that 'flu like' has become a descriptor. Your body tends to produce that pattern of signs/symptoms when certain immune responses are heavily triggered by a virus. However, it doesn't mean they're all the same virus.

COVID-19 seems to be somewhat flu-like in some cases, but in others it's far more severe and can include things like multiple organ involvement in the very end of the spectrum.

Also the symptoms being described range from flu-like to lung pain and bad headaches. It's not that straight forward.

So, be damn careful with this thing it's not absolutely not the flu, but it can be mistaken for it.

Ficheall · 17-03-2020 9:17pm

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

I don't think it's ludicrous to think it was doing the rounds in Ireland by January, when a lot of people came down with a weird flu-like illness.

Yep, and if you read the first page of this thread, you'll see people also had it in December, November, and 2018..

Ficheall · 17-03-2020 10:01pm

lainey_d_123 wrote: »

What are the statistics for flu-related deaths in Ireland over the past few months? I'd be interested in seeing those.

Here you go. Does this support the theory then?

Week    2020    2019    2018
10      1       3       12
9       0       0       20
8       2       16      14
7       1       4       10
6       3       4       22
5       2       5       15
4       6       4       21
3       5       12      10
2       5       3       ~14
1       5       4       (<10 total to date)
2019 Week
51+52   9       1       (<10 total to date)
50      5       1       0
49      0       0       0
48      0       0       0
47      0       0       0
46      0       0       0
45      0       0       0
44      0       0       0
43      0       0       0
42      0       0       0

darjeeling · 18-03-2020 12:00am

Now that the flu season is almost over, here are the numbers from the HSE & NVRL

The red line shows numbers of flu-like cases reported by GPs.
The blue bars show levels of detection of influenza A (most common strain was H3N2) and the yellow bars show levels of detection of influenza B.

When increasing numbers of people were reporting flu-like illness, the amount of confirmed influenza cases was also rising.

So yes, it looks as though when people were saying they had the flu in Dec-Jan, they really did have the flu, and mostly influenza A H3N2.

Numbers for the last three years show that 2019-20 is between 2017-18 and 2018-2019 for number of cases, though actually fewer people were treated in intensive care this season than in the previous two seasons.

2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
Notified influenza cases 11,889 7,943 9,813
Confirmed influenza cases hospitalised 4,713 3,244 3,776
Confirmed influenza cases admitted to ICU 191 159 139
Notified influenza cases that died 255 97 101
Acute respiratory infection/influenza outbreaks 223 97 139

tuxy · 18-03-2020 12:44am

So influenza A H3N2 would seem to cause very nasty symptoms.

I have some good advice. If you have had it you were unlucky but now you are immune for a considerable amount of time. Everyone else should try to avoid it in the future!
Also get the flu vaccine but only if that strain is included.

odyssey06 · 18-03-2020 10:16am

There was a strain of H3N2 in the 2019-2020 flu shot though and some of the people on the this thread who were floored got the flu jab.
Was it a different strain?
https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2019_20_north/en/

NSAman · 18-03-2020 3:26pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

There was a strain of H3N2 in the 2019-2020 flu shot though and some of the people on the this thread who were floored got the flu jab.
Was it a different strain?
https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2019_20_north/en/

Who knows? I got the flu jab in October last year. Always get it every year.

I was surprised at how bad the flu I got in January was.

darjeeling · 21-03-2020 12:02pm

odyssey06 wrote: »

There was a strain of H3N2 in the 2019-2020 flu shot though and some of the people on the this thread who were floored got the flu jab.
Was it a different strain?
https://www.who.int/influenza/vaccines/virus/recommendations/2019_20_north/en/

There was a mismatch between the vaccine H3N2 strain and the major circulating strains of H3N2 in the northern hemisphere, which may account for some people getting the flu despite having the vaccine.
Link: https://www.statnews.com/2019/09/30/flu-vaccine-selections-may-be-an-ominous-sign-for-this-winter/

Below are some signs of Covid-19 beginning to make its appearance across Europe and the USA.
Flu-like illness has been increasing over the last two weeks at the same time as lab detection of influenza is decreasing.

Ireland: Week 11 shows uptick in flu-like illness at same time as lab-detected flu is declining.

France: Week 11 shows uptick in flu-like illness not seen in previous 2 years

USA: Week 11 shows uptick in non-flu flu-like illness across all 10 HHS regions (black lines)
[red line shows 2009, during swine flu pandemic]

UK: Week 11 shows uptick in flu-like illness

UK: Week 11 shows increase in acute respiratory illness outbreaks

Xertz · 21-03-2020 5:17pm

Whatever dose that was that was going around at Christmas it floored me anyway. I had no complications but it really was a horrible virus and took me weeks to get back to normal.

It probably was just the flu though. The flu vaccine is extremely useful and undoubtedly results in a lot fewer cases, but it’s also not 100% effective because the strain predictions are hard to make but also it doesn’t always trigger immunity. It’s a hell of a lot better than no vaccine but it’s far from one of those childhood illness vaccines that gives you long term immunity.

Unfortunately, the flu virus is one of those that mutates a lot.

I would suspect if we had had Coronavirus here in December we would have seen a big uptick in hospitalised patients and much more rapid spread.

Supercell · 21-03-2020 5:26pm

My family had a bad dose around Christmas too, I had gotten the jab and was only sick for a few days and didn't bother going to the doctor but my mother was almost hospitalised she was that bad (her doctor told her to call an ambulance if she got any worse), in the end it took her three weeks to get over it. She is a pensioner, makes me worry about the effect of COVID19 if it hits her.

speckle · 27-04-2020 8:24am

darjeeling wrote: »

There was a mismatch between the vaccine H3N2 strain and the major circulating strains of H3N2 in the northern hemisphere, which may account for some people getting the flu despite having the vaccine.
Link: https://www.statnews.com/2019/09/30/flu-vaccine-selections-may-be-an-ominous-sign-for-this-winter/

Below are some signs of Covid-19 beginning to make its appearance across Europe and the USA.
Flu-like illness has been increasing over the last two weeks at the same time as lab detection of influenza is decreasing.

Ireland: Week 11 shows uptick in flu-like illness at same time as lab-detected flu is declining.

France: Week 11 shows uptick in flu-like illness not seen in previous 2 years

USA: Week 11 shows uptick in non-flu flu-like illness across all 10 HHS regions (black lines)
[red line shows 2009, during swine flu pandemic]

UK: Week 11 shows uptick in flu-like illness

UK: Week 11 shows increase in acute respiratory illness outbreaks

Thats week 9 that the uptick appears in the Irish chart? thanks for the charts

Xertz · 27-04-2020 10:15am

Supercell wrote: »

My family had a bad dose around Christmas too, I had gotten the jab and was only sick for a few days and didn't bother going to the doctor but my mother was almost hospitalised she was that bad (her doctor told her to call an ambulance if she got any worse), in the end it took her three weeks to get over it. She is a pensioner, makes me worry about the effect of COVID19 if it hits her.

It had me concerned too. I have had a few run ins with flu over the last few years, including getting the Swine Flu a few years ago and having to repeat a whole academic programme as I was so sick I couldn’t be assessed.

All I know is if it hit me worse than that flu hit me at Christmas, I’d say I would be definitely be in hospital.

The bit that really shocked me with the flu at Christmas was the way my lungs were “crackling” as I breathed out. That lasted for two weeks until it eventually disappeared.

I took the advice that it was “only” flu and just basically self isolated, before that was a term, as I didn’t want to pass it on to anyone. I didn’t get any treatment though.

My dad, in his mid 60s got it before I did, and then it became “walking pneumonia” based on a GP diagnosis of blood oxygen. He was on antibiotics, antivirals, steroids and inhalers. He’s still on inhalers as the cough never fully disappeared. He had a full investigation of it in early February - CT scan and bronchoscopy and the results returned nothing of significance, but he’s still coughing and still on inhalers.

Whole family got it - we live in different houses but would have been in contact quite regularly.

I’m really, really concerned about getting COVID-19 though. If it’s any worse than that flu I can’t see myself having a very good result.

Wibbs · 27-04-2020 11:17am

Xertz wrote: »

I’m really, really concerned about getting COVID-19 though. If it’s any worse than that flu I can’t see myself having a very good result.

Thing is X, though that new years dose presented coincidently very similar symptoms to covid19, it's not a flu virus so nobody can predict how covid19 would affect you. It's an unknown at the moment. There are no experts in this yet. Including your own immune system.

Chances are good that unless you're over 50/60, with factors like obesity, high BP, diabetes in the mix, it wouldn't carry you off. Even with those factors the odds would still be in your favour.

Be careful of reading/hearing others personal experiences too. I know a fair few people in life that damn near every sniffle they get has them "at death's door". Or for that matter people who get mild symptoms, if any. Take my post on it back in Jan. It was a decidedly meh dose for me. Cleared the hump of it over a weekend. Just like Swine flu was for me, and the only two times I've even had symptomatic flu in my life.

Again neither type people can predict how Covid19 will affect them. The death's door types might not even get symptoms and it could put me in a pine box in a matter of days.

Beasty · 27-04-2020 12:06pm

This thread started in AH and was moved here

The main Covid thread (currently #XVI) caters for this sort of stuff without a misleading "flu" title, so I'm closing this one up

Latest type of flu??

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