Has anybody else got this bug?

[Sue]

I know there are a lot of bugs going round. I'd just like to have some idea how long it might take for the one I've got to run its course, if anyone else has had the same thing.

It doesn't seem to be like a normal cold, as the symptoms are in the wrong order and seem to be worse.

It started with about a week of a very runny nose, which at first I put down to the cold temperature outside, as I was feeling perfectly well.

Then I got a very sore throat and lost my voice

Then a bit of a cough. Then a headache. Then I started feeling rubbish and my eyes hurt. Then I couldn't sleep.

Now I've got all of it at once. I had to get up yesterday but I'm staying in bed today. I wondered if it was flu, but I've had a flu jab.

It's the time of year when there are a lot of things to do, and things to go to, so any indication of likely timescale would be very useful!

If you have it as well, commiserations!

[ianr]

Oh dear. Commiserations to you. I don't want to be a dampener of enthusiasm for flu jabs, but my understanding is that the early choice of constituents each year is always a bit of a gamble with respect to actual effectiveness. I seem to remember reading that in one (just one!) year, in over-65s, there was actually a higher prevalence of flu in those who *had* had the vaccine! I'm afraid that as a hard headed over-65 empiricist I found that quite amusing, though it doesn't put me off getting the annual jab at all (or lead me to any almost certainly fallacious belief that the vaccine aids or abets flu).

Another gratuitous observation, just in case it might have some validity and use for others, but with no assertion that it does ... On a couple of occasions in the last week, after noticing just the very slightest feeling of an incipient sore throat, and maybe a slight swelling of neck glands, I tried giving my immune system a helping hand by letting a small amount of mouthwash wash around my throat area for thirty seconds or so; and in each case didn't notice the symptoms again.

I see btw that the latest flu surveillance report available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-2022-to-2023-season does seem to sugest some sort of matching found between one of the several flu viruses prevalent at the moment and a vaccine constituent. Figures on actual vaccine effectiveness will presumably appear when there's enough data.

[Jules-and-Boo]

sorry you don't feel well Sue.

my daughter has something very similar, bad cough, pain in side (probably from coughing), headache, eyes ache and legs hurt.

Currently wrapped up in bed.

We won't be having flu jabs as they hinder natural resilience

[Sue]

We won't be having flu jabs as they hinder natural resilience

 

I'm over seventy and there is no way I would not have a flu jab!

Hope your daughter feels better soon.

[Moovart]

Yes there's definitely a sore throat, lost voice, headache and cough bug going round lasting 1-2 weeks. Hope you feel better soon.

[Nigello]

J and B, please show your evidence for your claim that the flu vaccine prevents your immune system from working as well as it could without it, then at least the readers of the EDF will have another point of view. Thank you very much and stay healthy.

[Sue]

It's Covid 😭

I had done a test previously, but according to 111 (who suggested my taking another test) lately a test may not show positive until five days in.

I phoned them because I wanted advice re the paracetamol I was taking for the throat pain.

Great time of the year to get it, eh?

Hope everybody else who has it or another virus gets well soon!

[Sue]

Yes there's definitely a sore throat, lost voice, headache and cough bug going round lasting 1-2 weeks. Hope you feel better soon.

 

Anybody else with these symptoms, please could you take a Covid test, and isolate if it is positive?

Shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted, once I am better I am going back to wearing a mask on public transport which is crowded and/or not well ventilated.

[Alan Medic]

Are you on the road to recovery yet Sue?

[Sue]

Are you on the road to recovery yet Sue?

 

On the mend I think, thanks for asking. Still testing positive.

Still in bed, mainly just cough now and limbs have started aching.

Not got any energy to do anything, sleeping a lot on and off.

Hope everybody else is keeping well, Covid seems to be running wild at the moment, and apart from the Zoe app nobody seems to be collecting data.

Plus as you now have to pay for tests, I'm guessing many people with symptoms just aren't testing.

[first mate]

I also do not see how a vaccination hinders natural resilience in this case, given that flu is a virus that mutates regularly? Surely a vaccination aids resilience in that it starts the immune system to build defences against certain flu variations and thereby other variations? Your defences are still natural and the same?

Yes, you'll probably have a stronger immune response if you contract flu but the risk there is you become very ill as well. The current rationale for having a jab is to avoid placing pressure on the NHS with admissions or Dr visits that might be avoided. Seems reasonable to me.

The only downside, in my view, is that vaccinations are generally less effective the older you get, but that is only because our immune systems decline anyway.

 

J and B, please show your evidence for your claim that the flu vaccine prevents your immune system from working as well as it could without it, then at least the readers of the EDF will have another point of view. Thank you very much and stay healthy.

[heartblock]

There is evidence that flu vaccine is protective against the worst effects of Covid https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01315-9

Anything that 'pokes' the immune system actually activates responses, so J and B are very much off the mark.....