Fujian A flu

[tonado]

So far the flu season is almost an epidemic in USA. It seems all flu comes from Asia.

[Mick]

I have just recovered from a week nightmare with the flu Tony. Started the night of the 12th with violent chills and high fever. Progressed to body aches, nasty, continuous coughing, and pounding headache. Finally went to doc last Monday. She gave me some anit-viral meds that knocked it out in about three more days. Still have the cough though and feel pretty drained. Fortunately, Li managed to not get it yet. During my illness she burned vinegar everyday in my room and slept in a separate bedroom. That was tough but best to protect the baby. When we saw the ob/gyn on Tuesday he said it would not be too detrimental if she came down with the flu as they now have safe ways to treat pregnant women that will not cause harm to the baby. Still, all in all, we are so thankful she hasn't had it. For those who do catch it, I feel sorry for you. It was a really nasty experience and one I don't wish to repeat. Flu is rampant right now in Alabama and Tennessee and many children have come down with it. Pray for those affected.

[natrigon]

I have just recovered from a week nightmare with the flu Tony. Started the night of the 12th with violent chills and high fever. Progressed to body aches, nasty, continuous coughing, and pounding headache. Finally went to doc last Monday. She gave me some anit-viral meds that knocked it out in about three more days. Still have the cough though and feel pretty drained. Fortunately, Li managed to not get it yet. During my illness she burned vinegar everyday in my room and slept in a separate bedroom. That was tough but best to protect the baby. When we saw the ob/gyn on Tuesday he said it would not be too detrimental if she came down with the flu as they now have safe ways to treat pregnant women that will not cause harm to the baby. Still, all in all, we are so thankful she hasn't had it. For those who do catch it, I feel sorry for you. It was a really nasty experience and one I don't wish to repeat. Flu is rampant right now in Alabama and Tennessee and many children have come down with it. Pray for those affected.

My doctor said I was the first one in the gulf coast area of mississippi with influenza this season. He gave me this prescrition called tamiflu. At the time I had a 103.2 degree fever, it was brutal. But 3 days later I was fine. That medicine really worked for me.

[tonado]

My wife and I had the flu shots in Nov. Hopefully, we won't get the flu. I had the flu in March this year and it knocked me out for a week. It took two weeks to fully recover.

[keelec]

Whew,

 

With all of you coughing and sneezing on your computers..... Good thing that the computers can't transmit that kind of virus!!!!!

 

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The flu is a small virus that rapidly mutates. There are certain common features that is common among all of the flu viruses, but each new virus is unique enough that most people are susceptible to it.

 

The flu virus is classified as "Hit & Run", making large populations sick in a matter of weeks moving from one host to another as immunity is quickly built up in the population to it.

 

I presume that the virus can not re-infect the same host unless it significantly mutates, so eventually it dies down in the population.

 

However, the viruses that are currently going around other continents would likely be different enough that they could move to the USA and hit large populations again if someone were to come over (or return home from a vacation) that was sick.

 

How do the vaccines work? Every year a few scientists get together and try to guess what the "most common" variants of the virus will be. To do this, they look at what is common in other countries. China and southeast Asia has half of the world's population so that would be a good place to look for viruses. The predictions have to come in early to allow for processing and creation of the vaccine, so what is happening in China one spring hopefully would be representative of what would hit the USA the next fall. They culture these variants that are expected to hit the USA 6 months later, and create the vaccine out of them. It doesn't prevent "The Flu", but only prevents these variants that are expected to migrate to the USA from infecting the individuals. Sometimes they are wrong and culture the wrong viruses and the vaccine is absolutely no help.

 

----- CK -----

[Bobby]

I considered getting a flu vaccine, but then I heard about this: Dilemma Over New Flu Vaccine [Wired.com].. at this point, I just hope I get it quickly and get it overwith before our interview date...

 

So far, nothing beats the sickness I had this time last year. It started out like the flu, so I began treating it like the flu. Then my temperature crept up to around 102 and threatened to go higher, so I started a battery of cold/flu medication and pain killers. I ended up so weak, I couldn't even crawl out of bed to use the bathroom. Luckily, my boss's wife (a retired RN) called, and I talked her into bringing food.. After about 4-7 days of this, I was well enough to get out of bed..

 

Well, that's the last time I'll think, "oh, its just the flu, I'll take care of it".. I found out a few days later about SARS and what it was.. I don't know if I had SARS for sure, but I can't remember ever being that sick or that weak..

[Mick]

Like I mentioned earlier in the thread, I came down with the flu on the 12th. Well, its now Sunday morning, nine days later, and I am much better but still not fully recovered. Still feel lethargic and my nose is running like a faucet. This is one nasty bug, whether it came from Fujian or Tierra del Fuego.

[se_lang]

I have come down with something, I have not had in the past like this, besides the runny nose or plugged or one of each my eyes start to burn then get very watery, the nose faucet turns on and almost sneeze but I still think I am better off then what my kids had, the 1 missed almost a week of school.

[Mick]

The aftermath of this thing still won't go away. I'm still snucking and draining like a faucet. Nasty!