| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | What is your personal experience of the current 'flu pandemic? Thread poster: Sheila Wilson
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| Oranges, honey, and faith | Nov 9, 2009 |
Johanna Timm, PhD wrote:
In my family, we try to stay away from antibiotics, and we do not intend to get flu shots. Instead, we take our orange juice in the mornings with a drop of oregano oil, add a bit more raw garlic to our food, and drink lots of ginger tea with lemon and honey – as we do every winter.
Indeed this sounds like the wise way to go. Lots of fresh-pressed juice and honey go around in our house. There is very little we can do to avoid catching the swine flu when it comes around our area, and I will not contribute to spreading the virus by accepting a dose delivered right to my children in the vaccine. If every person who catched the disease would die, I would of course ask for the vaccine for them, but this is not the case. As for help from the very top, so far in my life God never let me down when I asked him to help and protect the life of those I love.
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 17:30
Member (2007)
English
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks for your input, Dr. Bennett | Nov 9, 2009 |
Michael Barnett wrote:
In the past 2 weeks I have seen over 110 confirmed H1N1 cases.
That seems quite a lot of cases. But should they be visiting the surgery? Surely, by going to a public place, when you suspect you have the flu, you are spreading it everywhere. Doctors' surgeries are full of the people who are most at risk of complications: kids, the chronically ill, the elderly.
Influenza is characterized by cough, fever, body aches, headache and malaise. Sore throat can often be present, but when it is, it is usually mild. In fact, the absence of sore throat is a major help in distinguishing the flu from the other two.
Thanks very much for that concise description. That Monday-morning headache may, after all, not be flu.;-)
Being a virus, H1N1 is not affected by antibiotics.
That's what they're trying to get across here in France, where many patients think antibiotics are a cure-all and aren't happy about being refused them.
However, when millions of people are affected, there will be lots of untoward events. Part of my job is to decide who will need the specialized care.
I hope it doesn't come to that. Thanks again for your very informative input, Michael.
| | | | | What is your personal experience of the current 'flu pandemic? | Nov 9, 2009 |
Sheila Wilson wrote:
Here on ProZ we are a small cross-section of the world, so I thought it would be interesting to find out whether you or members of your entourage (family or friends) have been touched by this 'flu.
I personally know nobody who knows anybody who has suffered from it - hence my feeling that may be a storm in a teacup, media hype, a commercial windfall for those in the handwash gel / paper mask business, and a vast over-reaction of the health services who have an enormous responsibility to bear and are understandably reluctant to do anything other than go with the flow.
However, I am ready to believe that I may be understating things, under-reacting in response to what I see as others over-reacting. Please, please do not think I am insensitive to the fact that people have died of this strain of 'flu. I know people have died, and that their death is a tragedy for their family and friends. I simply doubt that this particular strain of 'flu is sufficiently virulent for all the healthy adults in the world to fear for their lives.
Please share your thoughts.
They diagnosed (normal) flu to me and, when I was going to go out of the hospital, they noticed that it was a smallpox because the blisters began to go out. But, in his favor I shoul say that it is not very usual to get smallpox with my age... ;-D
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:30
Spanish to English
| I had flu in August | Nov 9, 2009 |
Whether it was actually swine flu or not, I don't know because I wasn't tested. I had been feeling OK, but a little tired, when suddenly, just as we were getting out of the car to go to the supermarket, I felt dreadful with a high temperature. I managed to struggle round the supermarket for the few bits and pieces we needed and then we went to our hotel (we were away for a few days), where I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.
The next day I was asleep on the beach virtually all ... See more Whether it was actually swine flu or not, I don't know because I wasn't tested. I had been feeling OK, but a little tired, when suddenly, just as we were getting out of the car to go to the supermarket, I felt dreadful with a high temperature. I managed to struggle round the supermarket for the few bits and pieces we needed and then we went to our hotel (we were away for a few days), where I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.
The next day I was asleep on the beach virtually all day fully dressed with my fleece jacket on. When we returned home the following day, I checked my symptoms with the NHS online swine flu questionnaire (we have been specifically told not to visit the doctor if we suspect flu) and I was prescribed an antiviral drug, which I decided not to have collected as they say that it only works if you start taking it immediately, and I had already been ill for two days by that stage. I spent the rest of the week in the house resting as much as possible. I can't remember when the cough developed, but I didn't have a sore throat at all, and for me that's unusual, as I am normally guaranteed to get a cough if I have a sore throat. My temperature went down after a few days, but the cough persisted for over a week and was quite irritating. ▲ Collapse
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Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 18:30
French to German
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| Each and every year in August | Nov 9, 2009 |
Nikki Graham wrote:
Whether it was actually swine flu or not, I don't know because I wasn't tested. I had been feeling OK, but a little tired, when suddenly, just as we were getting out of the car to go to the supermarket, I felt dreadful with a high temperature. I managed to struggle round the supermarket for the few bits and pieces we needed and then we went to our hotel (we were away for a few days), where I collapsed on the bed and fell asleep.
Now that you mention it, Nikki, I have similar symptoms each and every year in August, my record being 2004 (temperature about 40 °C and a treatment involving 3,000 mg aspirin per day).
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:30
Spanish to English
| I forgot to mention... | Nov 9, 2009 |
Laurent KRAULAND wrote:
Now that you mention it, Nikki, I have similar symptoms each and every year in August, my record being 2004 (temperature about 40 °C and a treatment involving 3,000 mg aspirin per day).
Really? Poor you. I hadn't had the flu for about ten years before last August.
Also forgot to mention that I get the impression here in the UK that virtually any flu symptoms will be treated as suspected swine flu and antivirals prescribed.
| | | | Goran Tasic
Serbia
Local time: 18:30
Member (2006)
English to Serbian
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| Very interesting video to watch | Nov 9, 2009 |
| | | | Juliana Brown
Israel
Local time: 12:30
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
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| I agree about the antibiotics- | Nov 9, 2009 |
There's not much point in taking them for the flu anyway, is there?
Johanna Timm, PhD wrote:
One of my daughters fell ill with H1N1 (I live in Michael Barnett’s area in B.C.), but she recovered quickly within a few days. In some of her high school classes, 50% of the students are currently absent, and the swine flu, the need for antiviral vaccinations etc all dominate the news media the moment over here. In my family, we try to stay away from antibiotics, and we do not intend to get flu shots. Instead, we take our orange juice in the mornings with a drop of oregano oil, add a bit more raw garlic to our food, and drink lots of ginger tea with lemon and honey – as we do every winter.
I also dose everyone with oscilococcinum ( I know that's spelled wrong, but I've been up all night) at the first signs of anything flu-like. The adults are fine, and my younger one seems to have recovered, but we're all exhausted!
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Feion
China
Local time: 00:30
English to Chinese
I am in Beijing China, though I've listened a lot of flu cases, until now, I have no friends suffered from this disease, and many people have been injected with the vaccine, so I'm not worried about it, just keep away from the place with too much people. ..
| | | | | We've been through it here | Nov 9, 2009 |
I'm in the Chicago area, and my kids' school had many confirmed cases last spring (including a few in each of my girls' classes). This fall another school was closed with about 1/3 of the kids in one grade out sick. I know of only one child in our school who went to the hospital with pneumonia, but he was ultimately OK. A few people have died in our area from H1N1, but they had underlying health conditions. Fortunately, the people we know with other health issues who had it were fine.
... See more I'm in the Chicago area, and my kids' school had many confirmed cases last spring (including a few in each of my girls' classes). This fall another school was closed with about 1/3 of the kids in one grade out sick. I know of only one child in our school who went to the hospital with pneumonia, but he was ultimately OK. A few people have died in our area from H1N1, but they had underlying health conditions. Fortunately, the people we know with other health issues who had it were fine.
Last spring all cases had to be reported to the health department, and kids with it had to get cleared by the h.d. to go back to school. At this point they're not even testing for it, so I don't know if they even know how many people have actually had H1N1 in our area.
Our family will not be getting the H1N1 vaccination - all four of us are healthy and we'd rather let our doses go to those who need them more. Sadly, I don't think it works that way. The distribution process has been total chaos with healthy people getting the vaccination while people with very fragile health are on waiting lists unable to get it. A centralized system would have been good in this case. (By the way, they offered it at our school, and parents had to submit a consent form to get it. That's the normal procedure for anything like that.)
PS One more thing - maybe Dr. Barnett can confirm or refute this. A few people on this thread have mentioned the elderly as a risk group; I don't think that's quite right. As I understand it, older people are at high risk for catching the seasonal flu, but they are not considered a high-risk group for H1N1 due to some kind of residual immunity to swine flu.
[Edited at 2009-11-09 18:27 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The elderly are less susceptible. | Nov 9, 2009 |
Daina Jauntirans wrote:
PS One more thing - maybe Dr. Barnett can confirm or refute this. A few people on this thread have mentioned the elderly as a risk group; I don't think that's quite right. As I understand it, older people are at high risk for catching the seasonal flu, but they are not considered a high-risk group for H1N1 due to some kind of residual immunity to swine flu.
[Edited at 2009-11-09 18:27 GMT]
That is correct. Here in BC, those over 65 years old are ineligible for the vaccine until it becomes less scarce. The elderly appear to be less susceptible to H1N1, presumably due to past exposure to the same virus.
Just a word about the vaccine. The injected vaccine does not transmit the whole virus, just a patch of its coat that the immune system can recognize when the real whole virus comes along, so taking this vaccine is not proliferating the virus.
Michael
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Michael Barnett wrote:
The elderly appear to be less susceptible to H1N1, presumably due to past exposure to the same virus.
Michael
So this means the virus is not new. Could anyone then explain why are governments and the WHO making so much fuss about it? (or made, at least in the beginning.)
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| This IS the good old flu! | Nov 10, 2009 |
I am under the impression that many people ignore what the flu is and how it works.
The flu has been around for ages and we've been fighting it for ages. Like any tough organism, it adapts to its environment so it can survive. The more people take medication against a given infection, the more the virus itself adapts so it can circumvent the means we use to protect ouselves against it.
So, this swine flu here, it is not new. It is simply the good old flu we all know, wi... See more I am under the impression that many people ignore what the flu is and how it works.
The flu has been around for ages and we've been fighting it for ages. Like any tough organism, it adapts to its environment so it can survive. The more people take medication against a given infection, the more the virus itself adapts so it can circumvent the means we use to protect ouselves against it.
So, this swine flu here, it is not new. It is simply the good old flu we all know, with a shiny new coat (as Dr. Barnett calls it). In fact, the flu virus changes its coat pretty often, and chances are that if you've had the flu a dozen times in your life, it was the same flu but dressed in a different coat every time. It changes its disguise often so your antibodies don't recognize it. Simple as that.
This is not an entirely new virus: it is called influenza A virus subtype H1N1. Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H1n1
Bottom line: this is not a new virus. This is just the same old virus with a particularly good disguise. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Krzysztof Kajetanowicz (X)
Poland
Local time: 18:30
English to Polish
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The hype around this is massive. My personal experience with the AH1N1 is that there is no way I can tell. After all, it's just flu! They say there are three different types of seasonal flu in my country. This one is just #4. So what's the big deal.
One other thing I fail to comprehend is that governments around Europe have purchased millions of doses of the AH1N1 vaccine. Now:
1. Why did they use taxpayers' money for a mass purchase of a drug?
2. Why is it tolera... See more The hype around this is massive. My personal experience with the AH1N1 is that there is no way I can tell. After all, it's just flu! They say there are three different types of seasonal flu in my country. This one is just #4. So what's the big deal.
One other thing I fail to comprehend is that governments around Europe have purchased millions of doses of the AH1N1 vaccine. Now:
1. Why did they use taxpayers' money for a mass purchase of a drug?
2. Why is it tolerated that pharma companies refuse to supply the regular wholesale market with the vaccines and instead insist on governments being the sole buyers?
3. Why did the governments in question give pharma companies unprecedented contractual assurance that the government takes responsibility for any negative consequences, side effects etc.?
4. Whereas, when a drug is marketed normally and sold to private persons, such responsibility rests on a designated pharma company (e.g. producer)?
5. Why are the media trying to eat our government alive for not agreeing to #3? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The medias have done their work well I see... | Nov 10, 2009 |
I am astonished to see the effect of the medias on you fellow translators... Are you so gullible? We already had the case in France with the hepatitis B. The medias hysterically relayed this terrible risk of catching hepatitis... Finally it was more a hype than reality and the worst was that a number of people that got vaccinated contracted other terrible affections, and moreover, those are incurable (MS for instance). The bottom line was that the government gave "carte blanche" to a laboratory ... See more I am astonished to see the effect of the medias on you fellow translators... Are you so gullible? We already had the case in France with the hepatitis B. The medias hysterically relayed this terrible risk of catching hepatitis... Finally it was more a hype than reality and the worst was that a number of people that got vaccinated contracted other terrible affections, and moreover, those are incurable (MS for instance). The bottom line was that the government gave "carte blanche" to a laboratory to get rid of its stock of vaccines.
This time, its the swine flu, everybody got hysteric about the "bird flu" a few years back (did you see any epidemic of that one?). I never locked up my chicken... and never caught anything
Except people already affected by severe health problems, there are maybe a few cases of death following swine flu. Is that really a reason to panic? 99% of the people catching this flu are up and away after a few days of rest. When I was younger, the yearly flu got you in bed for 10 days, with high fever and muscle aches all over. This is not even the case with the swine flu.
However, laboratories got huge stocks of this vaccine, not even extensively tested. Do you really want to take the risk to get a severe affection instead of something like a big cold, just because your government or the media say so?
I'd say "over my dead body" ;-D
Elisabeth ▲ Collapse
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