Flu prospects this winter

[Snipper]

Seems as if last years flu jab did not protect the over 65's any more than not having it. 

With the flu outbreak in Australia what are the prospects for the U.K.?

[Snipper]

If above link does not work try. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports

Edited October 13, 2017 by Snipper

[ciel]

14 minutes ago, Snipper said:

Seems as if last years flu jab did not protect the over 65's any more than not having it. 

With the flu outbreak in Australia what are the prospects for the U.K.?

I'm not sure what the point of your post is? I have no idea how the latest flu virus will affect the over 65s in the UK, although I am aware of the trial vaccination.

 I do attend the doc for annual flu vaccination, and would recommend it, but I did contract a nasty flu/viral infection in late May 2017 which had a very debilitating and long lasting effect over the summer.

Maybe the oldies should just be wiped out by a global flu epidemic. 

Should help to reverse Brexit.

[Snipper]

What is the point of any post? Ask questions? Make people aware? Seek advice? Get an insight into a subject you know less  about than some others? Have an interesting and important topic to discuss?  No worse or better than is it going to snow this winter?

I could of course go to bed and read a book. Hooray most might say

[Snowyowl9]

Flu shots Scientifically Proven to Weaken Immune Response in Subsequent Years…

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-17-bombshell-flu-shots-scientifically-proven-to-weaken-immune-response-in-subsequent-years-researchers-stunned.html

[Snipper]

Don't disagree. Had mine, which fortunately has caused no problems this year. As it is probably the left over stuff from last year probably not surprising.  Although I cannot prove it at the moment the flu outbreak problems in Australia recently is not taken into account in most recent jab. 

[knocker]

I've had mine and even if you pick up virus not covered by the latest vaccine it can still lessen the symptoms. By coincidence this was on the Westcountry news this evening.

South Hams parents urged to give their children the flu vaccine after 3-year-old dies

http://www.dartmouth-today.co.uk/article.cfm?id=110401&headline=South Hams parents urged to give their children the flu vaccine after 3-year-old dies&sectionIs=news&searchyear=2017

.

Edited October 18, 2017 by knocker

[Bristawl Si]

I had flu jab 3 weeks ago....paid £8.95 in Superdrug. Used to get it free at work every Oct before i finished work last year.

I contracted full blown flu about 12/13 years ago. It was awful and contrary to what some plonks think it is 10× worse than the heaviest of common colds. The cough that appears a few days into catching flu lasted 3 months!

Temperature up and down for days, sweats, aching lower back, loss of appetite are just some of the things that come with flu.

As for weakening your immune system.....well i've not had flu since the time i mentioned...and i've barely had a cold in last 10 years.

[Methuselah]

1 hour ago, Snowyowl9 said:

Flu shots Scientifically Proven to Weaken Immune Response in Subsequent Years…

https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-17-bombshell-flu-shots-scientifically-proven-to-weaken-immune-response-in-subsequent-years-researchers-stunned.html

And eight-out-of-ten people can't tell the difference between S***k and butter!

[Methuselah]

10 minutes ago, Bristle boy said:

I had flu jab 3 weeks ago....paid £8.95 in Superdrug. Used to get it free at work every Oct before i finished work last year.

I contracted full blown flu about 12/13 years ago. It was awful and contrary to what some plonks think it is 10× worse than the heaviest of common colds. The cough that appears a few days into catching flu lasted 3 months!

Temperature up and down for days, sweats, aching lower back, loss of appetite are just some of the things that come with flu.

As for weakening your immune system.....well i've not had flu since the time i mentioned...and i've barely had a cold in last 10 years.

Last time I got flu was at Christmas 2010...Went to stay with my mum & bros, and spent the whole time in bed - freezing one minute, sweating like a pig the next...A common cold is certainly not the same as the flu!

[Dami]

Had my first flu thingy a few years back,  ended up with a flu like illness which sent me to the docs and in bed for two weeks and another week to feel human again, a month after having it. Worst I have been for years. Bubs and hubs have theirs, but i'm not going to bother. I at least escape from the dead arm from having it.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Dami

[Bristawl Si]

19 minutes ago, Ed Stone said:

Last time I got flu was at Christmas 2010...Went to stay with my mum & bros, and spent the whole time in bed - freezing one minute, sweating like a pig the next...A common cold is certainly not the same as the flu!

It certainly is not Pete.

One other thing i forgot. With a common cold it normally develops slowly over 2 or 3 days before you get a really bad Day 4 & 5 when u feel like cr@p....then gradually a normally healthy person starts to recover. But........

With Flu one hour in the day you feel absolutely fine as anyother normal day...... but 4 or 5 hours later you feel absolutely dreadful and all the flu symptons kick in straight away. Basically it takes you by complete surprise.....there aint no 2-3 day 'build-up' as with the common cold.

 

[Dami]

1 minute ago, Bristle boy said:

It certainly is not Pete.

One other thing i forgot. With a common cold it normally develops slowly over 2 or 3 days before you get a really bad Day 4 & 5 when u feel like cr@p....then gradually a normally healthy person starts to recover. But........

With Flu one hour in the day you feel absolutely fine as anyother normal day...... but 4 or 5 hours later you feel absolutely dreadful and all the flu symptons kick in straight away. Basically it takes you by complete surprise.....there aint no 2-3 day 'build-up' as with the common cold.

 

Quite agree. It just hits you. No built up. One second you feel ok the next I was ill. 

[Snipper]

Had a similar problem many years ago. Months later felt rotten. The medical consensus it was just pure coincidence. Put me off from having another for many years.

Have had the jab in recent years. Sometimes no apparent affect but others ended up with an aching arm. Haven't had flu. Well not what I would class as flu in recent years. Others I suspect claim to have flu but only a heavy cold. 

[Methuselah]

4 minutes ago, Dami said:

Had my first flu thingy a few years back,  ended up with a flu like illness which sent me to the docs and in bed for two weeks and another week to feel human again, a month after having it. Worst I have been for years. Bubs and hubs have theirs, but i'm not going to bother. I at least escape from the dead arm from having it.

But it's impossible to contract influenza from the annual vaccine - the 'virus' it contains is no-longer able to reproduce; it has been 'emasculated', it can no longer force human cells to reproduce it...

Of course, no vaccine can protect you (100%) from what you might contract from, say, a pole like what you get in a bus (a few days either side of your injection) but, surely, it's better than nothing?

[Dami]

Not saying the jab gave me the illness. I just know i had the jab and a month later I had a sudden, flu like illness and i hadn't been that poorly for years.  

[ciel]

Mine's due next week. Never previously had an adverse reaction to the vaccine except for a wee lump on the arm for a couple of days. 

However, earlier this year, I did pick up something more than a common cold, more like flu, ( I know the difference between common cold and flu btw ) and I am still slightly deaf in my right ear.

Whatever it was, last years vaccine didn't protect. I welcome new research into the effectiveness of flu vaccine and the older members of society.

[Methuselah]

15 minutes ago, ciel said:

Mine's due next week. Never previously had an adverse reaction to the vaccine except for a wee lump on the arm for a couple of days. 

However, earlier this year, I did pick up something more than a common cold, more like flu, ( I know the difference between common cold and flu btw ) and I am still slightly deaf in my right ear.

Whatever it was, last years vaccine didn't protect. I welcome new research into the effectiveness of flu vaccine and the older members of society.

You are right enough, ciel - last year's flu vaccine was hardly a 100% success...? But, at least a modern form of the Spanish Flu will not kill us all off, like it nearly did before? 

As far as our war against viruses is concerned, nothing will ever be perfect...But, thank God, Measles, Rubella, Polio, Diphtheria, Smallpox and Whooping Cough have been all but wiped out?

[ciel]

2 minutes ago, Ed Stone said:

As far as our war against viruses is concerned, nothing will ever be perfect...But, thank God, Measles, Rubella, Polio, Diphtheria, Smallpox and Whooping Cough have been all but wiped out?

Yes!

[geri]

I have an autoimmune disorder had my flu jab last year as normal . I was admitted into hospital January last year high temp etc.  I was swabbed for flu and guess what tested positive ! Hopefully this years vacine  is more effective ! 

[Methuselah]

This discussion has reminded me of my first year at school (1962):

There was a wee girl in my class who went to sleep on her desk, whom I never saw again...I never thought much about it until I later read about 'Childhood Leukaemia'...She wasn't the only one of my generation who 'disappeared'...

Thank God for medical science!

[Gray-Wolf]

1 hour ago, Ed Stone said:

Last time I got flu was at Christmas 2010...Went to stay with my mum & bros, and spent the whole time in bed - freezing one minute, sweating like a pig the next...A common cold is certainly not the same as the flu!

Sadly Luke came home from school with something horrid in Dec 2010 ( 10th). We always had flu jabs due to his severe disabilities yet both he and then I fell very ill with whatever he had recombined inside him ( parents with healthier kids send them into special school no matter the risk to others).

He died in Feb 2011 after never fully coming around from the December Flu bout and I have been left with " Post Viral Syndrome" which is basically the flu without the temp and the snot.

If the virus enters the blood stream, via a lesion, then it will attack whichever cells it come into contact with ( just like it does in the respiratory tract?) so your heart and your autonomic nervous system appear to be the first places your blood goes too after being reoxygenated.

As other posters have pointed out no cold can mimic the flu. If you've had the flu you know it . If you don't know then you haven't had it!

Never take your health for granted. It could just go in a moment!

[knocker]

16 minutes ago, Ed Stone said:

You are right enough, ciel - last year's flu vaccine was hardly a 100% success...? But, at least a modern form of the Spanish Flu will not kill us all off, like it nearly did before? 

As far as our war against viruses is concerned, nothing will ever be perfect...But, thank God, Measles, Rubella, Polio, Diphtheria, Smallpox and Whooping Cough have been all but wiped out?

Quite agree but I think it important keep on top of this as measles is on the upturn once again, particularly in the US.

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2016/03/study-relates-vaccine-refusal-rise-measles-pertussis

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/mar/11/sudden-increase-uk-measles-cases-warning-mmr-vaccination

[Snipper]

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2017-2018.htm

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/25/fighting-the-flu-can-be-a-matter-of-life-and-death-so-what-more-can-we-do

[ciel]

On the subject of viruses, I would recommend the book  "The Viral Storm" by Nathan Wolfe.