Flu and hype

[Moxie]

On another thread, several posters have commented that this year’s flu is especially bad and that there are many more deaths. How much of this is fact and how much is media hype? It really seems like every year is “the worst year ever†and we get news stories of kids dying in days. Or maybe I’m too much of a skeptic??

[HSmomof2]

According to this article, it seems to be worse than usual as far as number of hospitalizations, but probably not the “worst everâ€.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/02/health/flu-weekly-surveillance-feb-2/index.html

[Ottakee]

I just know that my friend that is a hospitalist (the doctor you have in the hospital in ICU) said it is very very bad this year. They ran out of vents at her hospital (a small City with a very large rural area surrounding it) and had to rent some.

 

One of mine had it but was only down 3 days and is recovering nicely. We have done yearly flu shots though for 10+ years so that is supposedly helping with less severity and quicker recovery.

[MotherGoose]

My kids pediatrician, as well as a couple of other doctors I know, confirmed that it's awful.

[Seasider]

I do not personally know anyone who's gotten the true flu this year. There's an ugly upper respiratory virus that is also making the rounds, and I know some senior citizens who've come down with that, but no one with actual confirmed cases of the flu. We take precautions, though, because who has time to be sick?!!

[Butter]

Numbers show it's one of the worst (unlikely worst ever though).  That's not media hype.  Hospitalizations and death for previously healthy people are up.  The shot wasn't that good of a match for the worst flu of the season (30+% for prevention; excellent for making it not nearly as bad as for those who didn't get the shot).

 

It's interesting, though.  Every time we have a well-publicized bad flu year, people get more vigilant about hand-washing, hand sanitizer, staying home when sick, reducing the amount they are around people, etc. which all lead to reduced transmission of the flu.

[Butter]

I do not personally know anyone who's gotten the true flu this year. There's an ugly upper respiratory virus that is also making the rounds, and I know some senior citizens who've come down with that, but no one with actual confirmed cases of the flu. We take precautions, though, because who has time to be sick?!!

 

I personally know several with confirmed flu (all A type).  My best friend works at a school and a couple days 1/5 of their students were out sick, several with confirmed flu.

[Ottakee]

Lota of confirmed cases in our area. Many, many schools around here are closing for 2-3 day stretches to try to clean and break the cycle. That isn't typical but has happened before.

[Tap]

I work in pharmacy and my coworkers husband in a hospital.

 

It is absolutely a worse than average year.

[Seasider]

I personally know several with confirmed flu (all A type). My best friend works at a school and a couple days 1/5 of their students were out sick, several with confirmed flu.

Oh I don't doubt that there are many cases, I just meant that we haven't personally been in contact with any. Perhaps that's because we have been recently focused on only a few things and not out and about as widely as we are during other times of the year. Maybe a lot of people that I normally am in contact with are also laying low and exercising contagion precautions.

[Ali in OR]

Why do you think it is media hype? That seems odd to me. Go to the CDC site. Read the news articles. A bad year doesn't mean it's 1918 all over again, but it does mean numbers are higher. I see lots of evidence of that: as a sub, I'm getting a lot more jobs because aides or their kids are out sick, classrooms are missing a significant number of kids, church prayer chain lists those with the flu, news articles talk about lack of hospital beds, talks with my dad who is a retired doctor confirm the same, local news article of a young mom who died, out-of-state FB friends post their flu stories, one of my kids was down right before Christmas, another came home sick yesterday. It just seems really odd to me to not believe it's a bad flu season. Maybe it's unusually light where you are.

[SamanthaCarter]

Anecdotal evidence for sure, but I think all three of mine have it or something similar right now. We’ve never had the flu run through the family as far as I remember.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Alice]

It’s a bad year. We are seeing 10-12 cases a day of flu (test positive) in our office. I don’t know our exact numbers in past years but it’s definitely more than usual.  We’re also seeing other respiratory viruses as well but the kids with the flu are by far sicker. It’s fairly easy for us to guess who will test positive just by looking at them when they come in. We are seeing about 75% Influenza A and 25% Influenza B. The people with B are not nearly as sick. The kids with A are miserable. We have had a handful of patients hospitalized but all have been mostly for observation and have recovered, thankfully. 

 

 

[Peaceseeker]

I think the media in general is starting to treat the yearly flu like an annual topic to be covered intensely, like an election year. It starts early and doesn't stop til spring.

 

I totally get we have a bad strain this year and the vaccine was a terrible match. And I know that every year we have people who die from the flu or flu complications. But the OVER-reporting on it day in and day out is driving me BATTY.

 

First there are reports of people dropping dead from the flu in 2-3 days with very few symptoms and basically no warning. Then there are the reports of overcrowded hospitals and not enough beds. Um, yeah. Because the news just made everyone with a sniffle totally freak out that they might DIE in a couple of days without warning! Of course they are rushing to the hospital. (I could have total organ failure with no more than a sore throat and a sniffle? I am getting this checked out immediately!) And with so many without health care, the ER becomes the regular doctor.

 

I now want an update each day of the millions of people who got the flu, felt bad for a few days, and went about their lives. Maybe a ticker keeping count at the bottom of the screen? Titled: Millions survived the flu this year

 

I think I have to stop reading the news til spring. I do want to know if we have a super flu or a mutation. Otherwise, I am tired of the daily fear factor flu updates.

Edited February 7, 2018 by CaliforniaDreaming

[ScoutTN]

It’s a bad year. We are seeing 10-12 cases a day of flu (test positive) in our office. I don’t know our exact numbers in past years but it’s definitely more than usual.  We’re also seeing other respiratory viruses as well but the kids with the flu are by far sicker. It’s fairly easy for us to guess who will test positive just by looking at them when they come in. We are seeing about 75% Influenza A and 25% Influenza B. The people with B are not nearly as sick. The kids with A are miserable. We have had a handful of patients hospitalized but all have been mostly for observation and have recovered, thankfully. 

 

 

This. The triage nurse knew Ds had it with one look. He had the A strain. She said it was bad this year, both in terms of virulence and prevalence. Partly b/c the vax was less effective. 

 

 

I do agree though, that the media hypes any bad news. Sickness, weather, crime, scandal. Good news is not profitable, apparently.

[Katy]

I know two otherwise healthy people from my small hometown church, aged 30-45, that died.  And the nurses I used to work with are all sharing memes on Facebook about why you shouldn't go to the ER unless it's actually an emergency, because you WILL leave with the flu.  Anecdotal, to be sure, but IMHE this is worse than the swine flu in 2008.

[MaeFlowers]

Everyone I have known who has had it says it is terrible.

But, I keep wondering if the fact that they are telling people to go in at the first sign of the flu is pushing numbers up. The flu is generally something people don't head to the dr for (barring health issues) but they have everyone so scared that I think many are going that would not have gone before.

 

If I remember correctly, CDC numbers are not actual cases, they are suspected cases. I think that matters. There is another virus that is going around that is flu-like. It may be skewing numbers, as well.

 

The reporting is driving me nuts. It is really isn't helping my anxiety levels, either. I think they should be reporting but they should cut down the drama.

[Farrar]

I believe the numbers, but what's funny is that it's been a really bad year for colds among everyone in our circles... but no one has had the flu. The last time it was a "bad year" that I recall was the swine flu year and it seemed like every other family we knew had it.

 

Knock on wood, of course.

[amy g.]

This is my 7th day stuck in bed with it. Hopefully I’ll be fever free tonight and come out of quarantine tomorrow.

 

My husband said he has never seen me sick like this in 32 years.

 

So yes, I think it is legitimately a very nasty virus, but I try to ignore the media as much as possible so I don’t really know if they have over hyped it.

[cjzimmer1]

I don't know for certain that I had the flu (ie I was never tested) however, the only way I could have gotten to the doctor to know for sure was if someone called an ambulance.  I was too sick to walk to length of the house,  there is no way I could have walked down the set of stairs.  I nearly fell off the toilet when I learned forward a bit because I was so weak, I lacked the muscle strength to right myself.  I spent 22 hours straight in bed because I was soooo tired and weak it wasn't worth it to try and move. I ached everywhere,  My teeth hurt, even my skin hurt, along with the usual bones/muscle aches.  I slept with 5 fleece blankets/comforters (basically every extra blanket that wasn't in use in the house) on and still shook the bed so much my DH had a hard time sleeping.  My DD stayed home from church to "babysit" me because I was so sick, no one felt comfortable leaving me alone. So while I don't know for "certain" I had the flu, I think it's a reasonable guess that I did. 

 

I also have one DS who almost never gets sick (even when everyone else in the house gets sick) and when he got this,  it was 3 days before he really crawled out of bed and another 4-5 days before he was normal.  

 

I've only been sicker one other time with the flu and that time I was nursing my 1 year and 3 months pregnant (with severe morning sickness) so my body was completely depleted going into it.

 

So in my experience, this has definitely been much worse than other variants of flu that we have encountered in other years.

[lea1]

Dh is an urgent care doctor and says it worse than it has been for the past 10 years.  The urgent cares where he works ended up doubling up the doctors for the evening shifts because they were so busy.  He recently broke his old record of number of patients seen in a day.  They are not all flu cases of course but many, many of them are.

[ktgrok]

This is the first time this particular strain has hit the USA, so no one has immunity it seems. But yes, very serious according to the doctors and medical staff I've spoken with. My mom, dad, sister and nieces have all had it recently. All vaccinated. All very ill. My poor niece actually tested positive for flu A and b strains. 

 

I am not a germaphobe but this is freaking me out. I didn't get around to getting us vaccinated this year, and at this point I'm not taking my kids anywhere near a doctor's office to go get the vaccine (kids can only get it at a doctor's office here), so yeah. Just tonight I made up a fresh batch of elderberry syrup. 

 

Hoping that the kids across the street don't have it..my kids were playing with them today and then I noticed that one girl had a bright pink face and ears like she had a fever, and the other had crusted snot under her nose. Ugh. We made an excuse and went inside and washed hands, and I had the kids change their clothes. 

[Peaceseeker]

There has also been a run on elderberry syrup! I can't find it anywhere. The same bottle I bought in December from Amazon has gone up $10 per bottle and I couldn't get it for over a week.

 

Supply and demand I guess. Next year I need to make my own or stock up more. It has worked well for my family (except for me- I got both strands). But even when I was laid out for a week with a fever in the middle of the house no one else did more than sniffle when I gave them the 4 doses a day of elderberry.

[melmichigan]

We also lost a child in our local school district.  He was an otherwise healthy child, that died within 2 days of showing any symptoms, and after being seen at the urgent care.  

 

We all just had it, and it was two weeks of hell. We are still recovering. I talked to the pediatrician (pre-existing conditions), and he said to monitor oxygen levels at home, and not to bring the child into the office or ER, but to have him contacted on call to direct admit if needed.  I consider that bad.

[Word Nerd]

Lota of confirmed cases in our area. Many, many schools around here are closing for 2-3 day stretches to try to clean and break the cycle. That isn't typical but has happened before.

Same here. It’s not just hype that it’s worse than usual this year.

[Epicurean]

One reason a lot of attention is drawn to it is that so many people don't vaccinate. To the scientific community, it really is a crisis akin to people refusing to wear seat belts. Even when the strains mutate and you end us getting the flu anyway, the vaccination still helps your immunity by making the illness less severe, resulting in less hospitalizations and deaths.

[tagglelim]

Well, this is just anecdotal, but best friend's sister just died of the flu. 😞 She was only 43, began symptoms on Wednesday night, and was gone by Saturday morning. The coroner spoke at length with my friend and confirmed this is the worst year he has seen in a long time.

[kbutton]

One reason a lot of attention is drawn to it is that so many people don't vaccinate. To the scientific community, it really is a crisis akin to people refusing to wear seat belts. Even when the strains mutate and you end us getting the flu anyway, the vaccination still helps your immunity by making the illness less severe, resulting in less hospitalizations and deaths.

 

Yep! Married to someone in healthcare who is very partial to the flu shot...as he says, if you get the flu shot, and it keeps you from getting the flu, great! But it's really there to hopefully keep you from DYING from the flu. Not dying = success even if you still get sick. 

 

Some people also do not realize that the flu test gives a lot of false negatives--you can test negative for the flu and still have the flu. Happens all the time. 

 

I am descended from people who had the 1918 flu--a great-grandfather survived; his father did not. Just knowing that information has made me take flu really seriously.

[Crimson Wife]

Yep! Married to someone in healthcare who is very partial to the flu shot...as he says, if you get the flu shot, and it keeps you from getting the flu, great! But it's really there to hopefully keep you from DYING from the flu. Not dying = success even if you still get sick.

 

Some people also do not realize that the flu test gives a lot of false negatives--you can test negative for the flu and still have the flu. Happens all the time.

 

I am descended from people who had the 1918 flu--a great-grandfather survived; his father did not. Just knowing that information has made me take flu really seriously.

My great uncle survived the trenches of WWI only to die the following year from the Spanish Flu. He was totally healthy in his early 20’s but the flu caused encephalitis that proved fatal

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[historically accurate]

Lota of confirmed cases in our area. Many, many schools around here are closing for 2-3 day stretches to try to clean and break the cycle. That isn't typical but has happened before.

 

 

Our local schools haven't closed, but my high school about 1 hour away did. It's a boarding school so they gave the kids a week at home in order to get the dorms and classrooms clean.  

[alisoncooks]

There has also been a run on elderberry syrup! I can't find it anywhere. The same bottle I bought in December from Amazon has gone up $10 per bottle and I couldn't get it for over a week.

 

Supply and demand I guess. Next year I need to make my own or stock up more. It has worked well for my family (except for me- I got both strands). But even when I was laid out for a week with a fever in the middle of the house no one else did more than sniffle when I gave them the 4 doses a day of elderberry.

Yep. I tried to have DH pick up Sambucol last night at the pharmacy, and they were totally out. Both my girls were sick at Christmas, and DH has been hacking for a solid month, and I'm crediting elderberry tablets and gummy vitamins for my continued well-being. (Or at least the power of positive thinking/placebo!)

[Bambam]

The flu was bad here in Texas for several weeks before/during/after Christmas time. One local school system shut for almost a week due to so many kids being out. My FB feed was filled with those who had the flu.

 

Fast forward to the last of January. There was a large well-attended teen event, and kids and parents who attended started dropping like flies from the flu. Once again, we have many friends (different ones this time around) who are sick with the flu. 

 

The ones who have been sick report just feeling simply awful for days and it is taking them a while (1-2 weeks) to get back to their normal energy levels and not feeling slightly brain-foggy. 

[creekland]

I think it's not only a bad year but it's also good that the news is covering it as such.  It might keep sick people home rather than spreading it (or spreading it by forcing their kids to go out).  It might make others consider the shot.  Even 20-30% effectiveness helps.  It might encourage better sanitation.  It might help some have more sympathy for sufferers when otherwise they'd expect them to brush it off.

 

The news certainly can build hype (alar on apples anyone?), but this isn't hype.  This is reporting the news hoping others can benefit from the knowledge.  No newscast I've listened to has said everyone dies from it - or even a majority.  It's always been a "beware" because this strain can be deadlier than other years.  Maybe that gets a parent taking their sick child or spouse into the doctor in time to save their lives when they otherwise would have waited too long.  Who knows?

 

 

[Sandwalker]

Yep. I tried to have DH pick up Sambucol last night at the pharmacy, and they were totally out. Both my girls were sick at Christmas, and DH has been hacking for a solid month, and I'm crediting elderberry tablets and gummy vitamins for my continued well-being. (Or at least the power of positive thinking/placebo!)

I am receiving an amazon delivery today of a $25 (!) bottle of elderberry syrup. I bought it for $15 earlier in the season...Price gouging!

[....]

It's one of the worst flus I've ever had in my life.  We caught it the week after Christmas and our 2 year-old was turning colors and shaking.  He just kept passing out on the floor - if you knew him, he's usually a tornado all over the house.  It's the first week of February and we've been continuously sick since we caught the flu.  Now we have some kind of cold for several weeks (I think our immune systems were just trashed after the flu).

 

I've had an intermittent ringing in my ears/dizziness/earache since the stupid flu started in December.  It's February!  Ugh.

 

We have missed weeks of activities, church, playdates...dh was actually ordered to stay home from work for the next 5 days (from the urgent care center).  We just missed a ton of work and stuff.

 

Anyway, yeah, it's a bad one.  

[Scarlett]

I know two people who died from the flu this year.  However, both were elderly and one was just finishing chemo so had a compromised immune system...Not that it makes it any easier for their loved ones to have lost them, but these healthy kids just dying within days of getting the flu is freaking me out a bit.  I don't think I have ever had the flu.  Nor my son.  I know XH had it bad one year when we were young and then again a few years ago.  Ds had spent the weekend with him but still didn't get it.  

[....]

Well, this is just anecdotal, but best friend's sister just died of the flu. 😞 She was only 43, began symptoms on Wednesday night, and was gone by Saturday morning. The coroner spoke at length with my friend and confirmed this is the worst year he has seen in a long time.

 

Oh, no.  I'm sorry.  

[AmandaVT]

Here's one of our favorite brands of elderberry and it's still $15 for an 8oz bottle

 

We haven't caught it yet and are hoping not to - our coop was closed last week because so many people were sick, they wanted to be cautious and keep everyone home for a week. It's starting to go through our office though, so I'm hoping DH doesn't bring it home. I was in on Saturday and cloroxed everything I could think to wipe down. 

 

DS has a Dr's appt next week for a med check. I am thinking about rescheduling it or seeing if his Dr would be willing to do a telemedicine visit w/ him so we don't have to go in.

[SereneHome]

Well, my kids' doctor's office has extended their hours through 8pm every night for the next 6 wks.  I am pretty sure they wouldn't be doing it for "media hype"

[PinkyandtheBrains.]

 

 

It may be the worst in 10 years according to The Economist.

https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2018/02/economist-explains-4

[flyingaway]

I don't think it's a bad thing to cover the severity of the flu. There seem to be an awful lot of people who, never having experienced it, don't get what a big deal it can be, and there are those who still go out and expose others when they know they have it.

[kbutton]

My great uncle survived the trenches of WWI only to die the following year from the Spanish Flu. He was totally healthy in his early 20’s but the flu caused encephalitis that proved fatal

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sobering stuff! 

[ktgrok]

I have heard there's something else big this year that has flu-like symptoms. So, it may not be the flu so much as just a lot of people getting lots of icky things this year. My whole family had a bout of throwing up over Christmas but I don't know if any of us actually had the flu (we think at least dh had food poisoning). Plus, that seems more like stomach flu than anything else and it's kind of murky to me what people are referring to when they say flu. When ds had flu last year it was the respiratory kind. At Sunday school I had a child inform me they had just gotten over the flu and had been throwing up. That sounds like a stomach virus, not necessarily flu.

 

Just based on my personal experience and interactions with others reporting being sick, I do believe it's really bad this year... but like I said not sure if it's flu or just a combination of icky things.

 

Actually, there is a strain of influenza going around that IS causing vomiting in children, which yes, is somewhat unusual for influenza. Several of the people I know who brought kids in and got a positive flu swab have vomiting kids. 

[Garga]

There has also been a run on elderberry syrup! I can't find it anywhere. The same bottle I bought in December from Amazon has gone up $10 per bottle and I couldn't get it for over a week.

Supply and demand I guess. Next year I need to make my own or stock up more. It has worked well for my family (except for me- I got both strands). But even when I was laid out for a week with a fever in the middle of the house no one else did more than sniffle when I gave them the 4 doses a day of elderberry.

  

 

I just looked up the bottle that I bought on Sunday to give you a link so you could get some, but....see below....

 

I am receiving an amazon delivery today of a $25 (!) bottle of elderberry syrup. I bought it for $15 earlier in the season...Price gouging!

The bottle of elderberry liquid I bought on Sunday on its way to me. I paid $14 and change. I just looked up the same bottle, and now it’s $60 for a two-pack. No individual bottles sold, and if they were, they’d be $30 each. More than doubled in price since Sunday! Yikes!

 

If you want a super expensive double pack, here it is: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078CQ7MF4/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

[kbutton]

Actually, there is a strain of influenza going around that IS causing vomiting in children, which yes, is somewhat unusual for influenza. Several of the people I know who brought kids in and got a positive flu swab have vomiting kids. 

 

The last time anyone in our family had any kind of flu-like illness, it involved vomiting and diarrhea in copious amounts, but it also had the classic fever, body aches, respiratory stuff too. In this case, it was DH, and he hurt so badly he couldn't sit upright. I don't think anyone in our family has had flu since the kids were born. 

 

I think some people react to all kinds of illness with GI distress, just like I react to just about any negative bodily problem with a headache. But if it's only GI stuff, I really don't think it's likely to be flu.

[bluestarmom]

hi  all.  Wisconsin here    we have had the flu for 3 weeks now.  I had it the worst..  bubby was a little different.   we shared meds.. it helped a bit..  but  kids I have to ask..

please  anyone out there  over 60 years of age  and pain in the tricep muscle of the left arm..  its ok from am  to about 1:30 pm and then hurts in a tiny area.. like the devil..

please  .  anyone   I have a doc apt later this month.  but  fear. this is going to be worse.. thanks for the help..

[3 ladybugs]

I have had it twice this year (season) and I have had the flu vaccine a month prior to me getting it the first time. It is very bad this year. I typically don't get the flu (as I get the vaccine) but this year I haven't been so lucky. 

 

My DH reads all the medical journals and such and it is all not good. However, it isn't that surprising that we got a "bad" year as we have been "due" for years. 

[Sandwalker]

Well I had it and the kids had it. We are fine. I was the sickest, not even the baby. Nobody has tamiflu. It’s scary because disease always is, but even our more fragile members were sick as dogs but not in the hospital or in mortal danger. I think there is a wee bit of hype at this point.

Most people will recover fine, but there is the small percentage who die. A doctor at our local hospital was on shift and went out to his car to rest--and never woke up. Influenza at 54.

[Crimson Wife]

Yes, people die of the flu every year. But stressing about dying hasn’t prevented death yet. Common sense avoidance of risky areas and quarantine if you have it is all excellent. But this is getting to ridiculous huge levels for a flu strain that is virulent but not exactly Ebola levels of fatalities.

 

It was awful - I was sick and essentially stuck in bed for days at a time, and wasn’t better for almost a solid month. I’m only just getting over it.

 

I think doctors need to get a better understanding of the whole "cytokines storm" thing and why certain flu strains such as this one trigger it in young, healthy individuals. When the elderly and those with chronic illnesses have trouble fighting off the flu, it's sad but understandable. When someone in the prime of his/her life goes from healthy to dead in a matter of hours to days, that's alarming.

[duckabell]

Our state has a weekly flu report that you can see. When I looked at mortality broken down by age for the 2017-2018 flu season, 8% of the deaths were people under 50, 17% was ages 50-64, and the remaining 75% was 65+. While that might be up from other years, statistically it's still the elderly and possibly immune compromised who were hit the hardest in my area.