H1N1 - What's the Feeling in SL Community?

I had it over the summer..it lasted longer than most flu's do with me ..about 7 days..but it's one of the mildest i have had..i just hated feeling sleepy all the time..
i didn't mind the weeks vacation hehehe

The current strain of Swine Flu is actually pretty mild. The regular old seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people a year - Swine Flu is just a drop in the bucket comparatively.

What is of far greater concern is if the Swine Flu intermingles with Avian Flu and produces a new strain of flu that has high transferability PLUS fast and lethal.

Getting your immune system into a high functioning state is a good idea whether or not you choose a flu shot.

Not to doubt you, but I see people saying they had "swine flu" and say it was nothing. Did you have identification of the virus causing your illness as H1N1 by a culture, PCR or other rapid flu test?

The reason I ask is people use the word flu for every 24- to 48-hour viral infection that goes around. The organisms causing most viral infections are never identified, and there are many lesser viruses that will cause these short-term illnesses. The real flu (short for influenza) is caused by an organism from the family of viruses called Orthomyxoviridae. These include influenza A, influenza B, influenza C, Hong Kong, Asian, swine, and a few other lesser known. These viruses cause way more than the 24 to 48 hours of sniffling and headache, and are the type that hospitalize healthy people, and kill those with immunodeficiencies or other comorbidities. Real influenza can last up to 3 to 4 days, and is usually never a walk in the park.

The current incarnation of H1N1 is a particular nasty influenza that quickly puts even the most healthy of individuals down in bed and unable to function. That is not to say they are in immediate danger of death, but it is not usually a sickness one shrugs off.

Don't know how true it is, but according to this chart http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelpaukner/4052849920/sizes/o/in/pool-16135094@N00/ during the past 300 days almost as many people died from leporsy as did from the Mexican swine flu.

Ay carumba!

Kenbro, many of us lived through and contracted similar strains. We are getting milder versions if we catch it at all. The same way many who had the flu in the late 50's never got the one in the late 70's.

I have had it, confirmed. It was nothing like the pamphlet warned. It was nothing like the Russian flu of 77. However, it liiiiingers. You think you are fine and then wham, for 2 hours you feel like crap again, then feel okay, repeat.

Lmao, it was only after I gave it to other people I realized I had The Flu, because they got it so much worse than me. I was like, Huh? It's nowhere near as bad as it said on the box

I understand what you are saying, been around since the late 50s myself. In my profession I see what the worst case scenario can be, and it happens every year with the regular 'seasonal" varieties of influenza also. It is just my hopes that swine flu or H1N1 is not being reported in lieu of the simple viral illnesses people get. It is enough of an issue that disinformation does no one any good.

Nobody's bothering to test for flu type in Orange County that I know of unless you are in an ICU or something; it's that widespread. I tried to call the kid's doctor's office last week and it literally took two hours to get through. Normally they pick up right away.

Statistics are something like "1 in 5 of all kids infected" in the west with h1n1 with peak infection rates still ahead of us. If you have a kid in high school going to multiple classes a day, you are basically gonna get it; such schools are nearly ideal incubators/transmission sites.

http://www2.wsav.com/sav/news/local/article/h1n1_infection_rate_rising/60396/

So if we didn't have h1n1 specifically, we had the *amazing luck* to get something else. It's possible... but, what are the odds.

Check out the map at the bottom of this page:

http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/ Brown = Widespread. The United States is almost solid brown on that map.

I don't leave this room. No risk on me. (^_^)y

Thats what it was like for me..high fever then normal feeling..well the migrain was pretty consistent and being tired..but the fever would come and go none stop..
infact one day i thought it was finally gone but then it hit again and i was down for another 4 days LOL

Des speaks for himself, but he and I both fell into the age range that got the Russian flu, and I had it in 77 without a doubt. It was as bad as it said on the box. At that time, I think people over 24 were less likely to contract it, or to suffer milder symptoms.

Sound familiar?

I live in a backwater of Ireland and the HSE was directly involved in deciding whether I had it or not. I did. I am glad I have it over with. That is my consolation, but I see what you are saying. No point in expecting to be half dead of it though, either if you have already done your time. If I hadn't had it, I would get the vaccine on the 2nd.

flu vaccine?.....I don't think so
unfortunately I have to work for a living, so that minority is not a priority.

I am one of the groups that if I get the flu -- this flu or any flu - I am at pretty high risk for complications. However, I have never gotten a flu shot and I do not intend to start doing so now.

Flu shots use dead virus. The one that's inhaled uses a weakened, live virus.

Though I am no health professional, I must agree with you. I may have had a real influenza virus twice, maybe three times, in my lifetime. The first time I was in grade school and I still remember how horrible it was. I could only do two things: huddle under every blanket I could find and shiver myself to sleep in spite of the pain, or try to make it painfully to the toilet to purge the small amount of broth I could get down. This went on for weeks because I kept relapsing and I was almost held back a grade.

I call milder things a cold. Maybe there are milder flues, but I think with the flu you get so sick you feel like you really are dying -- and maybe wish you would get on with it.

I'm not taking the vaccine though. I am not in a high risk group and I am an extreme recluse when not at work. I'll save the vaccine for those who need it. If I do catch the flu, it will be a good excuse for some down time from work however horrible it may feel. I am confident I will survive the flu. I'm not so sure about surviving the torture of the office much longer.

Pretty good. Do you think the ordinary cold viruses skipped town because they heard the swine flu was taking over?

H1N1 is being reported as regular FLU around the country by hospitals and clinics. It is being done so because there is no way for a medical practitioner to tell standard Influenza from H1N1 when people come into clinics and hospitals complaining of early onset conditions.

I know for a fact that a clinic in my town is reporting H1N1 and Influenza as the same, and i heard someone on a radio show report something similar.

Remember, or in case you did not know, H1N1 would have gone into the regular Influenza shot regardless if it had gone pandemic or not so a lot of hospitals and medical places are not separating the two.

/me had this early this summer and it sucked. That whole wake up to realize you're shaking because you're so cold but drenched in sweat anyway and thinking for about 20 minutes how badly that sucks until you realize that it's time to *run* to the bathroom or you're gonna be cleaning barf off the floor then dealing with that for a while, well after there's nothing left to come up, then back to the couch for 45 minutes of sleep before it starts again. That only went on for a bit over a day, praise dog!, but still felt horrible for a week..

Yuck. Been there, done that, think it's a crappy way to get a week off of work.

The CDC is also lumping seasonal and Swine Flu together as one;

Weekly flu synopsis:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

Here is their Swine Flu specific page:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

It's not just the H1N1 that's a hype:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/brownlee-h1n1

Its already been on talk radio here.... people (and the medical profession) blew the Swine Flu thing out of proportion.

The reason many hospitals aren't reporting it? Its not showing up! From what they said on the radio, California- 97% of cases weren't "Swine Flu". Its turning out that maybe 1-4% of the people have it.

Besides, the regular flu kills more people.

Didn't the bird flu vaccine ship with live virus by mistake?

This was mild, but no cold. Rapid onset to fever within less than an hour, deep muscle aches, chronic fatigue, absolutely no sinus issues or stuffiness in nasal passages. And no sinus issues even after being sick in the lungs and with residual, bad bronchitis for nearly 2 weeks now, which is finally clearing up.

So... you tell me. That sound like any kinda cold or rhinovirus you've ever heard of?

I'm not hearing of any cold epidemic around here either, and whatever it is I got, everyone else has the same symptoms around here with varying severity.

I've had H flu in the past (throat culture.)

Any type of flu *can* be deadly; how many people die per year from 'regular' flu?

But this is one of those highly personal topics where no one is going to change anyone else's mind. All I can say is read as much as you can, and watch youtube vids on the topics if you can stomach them.