<p>Don’t want to scare anyone more than they are but just saw a very sad story about a local college kid who died from flu like symptoms. They haven’t confirmed H1N1 but are assuming based on the progression of the disease. They interviewed his Dad who said that his son had hardly been sick a day in his life and had no underlying health problem. It hit - went straight to his lungs and the secondary infection came. They amputated his lower legs hoping to save internal organs, but to no avail. Such a cute kid. </p>
<p>I am fearful that my daughter ( 12 ) has it…it has been going around the school. We were out all last week on a trip to Disney . Her best friend was diagnosed and is now recovering…now my daughter has come home from school today with some of the symptoms. I called the pediatrician and spoke to the nurse…got the usual advice of fluids, rest and tylenol…poor kid has been sleeping since she got home.
I am really scared to get it because of my asthma…whenever I get a chest cold, I am in trouble…for anyone who still doesn’t take this threat seriuously, I am guessing that you have never lost your ability to breathe.</p>
<p>lje62, I haven’t looked at the vaccine thread, but you should call your doctor and see if you can get vaccinated. Vaccine is available now for those with underlying conditions (not sure about supply in all areas, though).</p>
<p>intparent, I have been in touch with my docs and they will not be offering the vaccination ( at least the first round ) I just heard that the nasal vaccine is not recommended for asthmatics, so I think my plan to stand in line on the 30th might be out the door</p>
<p>Where the h!@#$ is the H1N1 vaccine so that people in the highest risk age groups and people with underlying conditions can get shots and we can be done with situations like this?</p>
<p>Not to mention that elderly people, even with very serious underlying conditions, are not on the list of target groups to receive vaccine. (Go look at the CDC and your own state’s websites.) Indeed, the elderly may be less likely to contract H1N1 because of their exposure/antibodies from flu that appeared decades ago, but the frail elderly with respiratory conditions are still vulnerable and the consequences if they do contract any influenza are pretty serious.</p>
<p>Not to get political or paranoid or anything like that, but does this represent the rationing needed preventive care, denying it to the frail elderly? Hmmm…</p>
<p>intparent – As far as I can tell, vaccine is not readily available for people with underlying conditions in my area. One high risk member of my family has received the mist from the pediatrician. I am in a major, urban center. Efforts to find the vaccine for an elderly relative with serious underlying issues have been unsuccessful. There are going to be clinics set up by our country’s health department in the near future, but it’s not entirely clear if an elderly person will be eligible to receive the vaccine there as, unless the elderly person cares for a baby under 6 months old, the elderly don’t seem to be on the list of designated recipients.</p>
<p>According to some news releases, people over 65 have been exposed to a flu strain that hit hard in the 50s and had a similar side effect profile to this H1N1 strain; it is believed that older folks have accumulated some immunity to H1N1 which young adults and kids who have never been exposed to anything similar lack.</p>
<p>CDC still recommends seasonal flu shots and pneumonia shots for people 65 year old and older. In the link provided, scroll down to Figure titled “Distribution by age group of persons hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza”.</p>
<p>This printout shows that the WHO is recommending taking Tamiflu antiviral BEFORE getting results for suspected H1N1, especially for at-risk patients. Briinging this may be helpful to your D when she goes to the ER. Good luck & keep us posted.</p>
<p>The info on H1N1 posing a much greater risk to young people is very convincing, and it makes sense that with a limited supply of vaccine, one wouldn’t want to run out and innoculate people over 65 indiscriminately. That said, there is a population of frail elderly with severe respiratory illness for whom influenza of any kind is a life-threatening cause for hospitalization. I am very concerned that this small segment of the over 65 population does not have access to the currently limited supply of vaccine.</p>
<p>Nester - no one is picking on frail elderly people. They have found that people born before 1950 are immune to H1N1.
From the 60 minutes report:
This is a matter of triage. Until there is enough vaccine it must be dispensed to population groups that are most at risk. In this case it is pregnant women and kids. When the vaccine becomes readily available then it will be available to more people.</p>
<p>regarding elderly:
I do think it is good to be prudent. If I had school age children - particularly if H1N1 is active in the community I would not take them to visit Gram in the nursing home. This is also the reason why many hospitals have prohibited children from visiting.</p>
<p>If there were outbreaks among the elderly - in assisted living communities or nursing homes then CDC would alter the recommendations.</p>
<p>I have not heard of any elderly people getting H1N1. My mom is in her 80s and she knows people of all ages who have had what they assume to be swine flu, except in her age group. They seem to be floating right through.</p>
<p>This is beyond outrageous. However, I noticed it was the receptionist that said this. I think the lesson for next time is to ask for the office manager if the receptionist says something this ridiculous. What, you have to be healthy before you can be sick? One thing I’ve learned and that my DD has learned managing a chronic illness, is that one cannot take no for an answer the first time it’s said, because it’s almost routinely said these days. As in, “no, we don’t have any appointments for the next 2 months” and so forth. It seems that it’s almost always necessary these days to insist on talking to a nurse or the office manager in order to actually get seen. I don’t get it. It’s inexcusable to turn someone away because they haven’t been seen before unless this doctor is not taking new patients – in which case they should have immediately made a referral and helped her to get seen that very day.</p>
<p>Found out the cough medicine they gave my daughter is for pnuemonia, normally. She had blisters in the back of her throat and was too sick for school today, plans to try to go to a lab make-up tomorrow since this professor doesn’t allow make-ups after the end of the week. She sounded completely destroyed, physically and does not like to miss class. (I hate that she has added stress.) Still, it’s better than what I’m hearing from some of you and I feel fortunate. I hope everyone is able to get what they need quickly.</p>
<p>Here in upstate NY, the vaccine is a “no-show”. No MDs seem to have it, even though they have the allocation well determined; under 24 first, those with compromised immune systems/severe breathing problems in the second wave, mild asthmatics and such third and then the general public. Plans are good, nothing to dispense is not. This thing is cutting quite a swath through college campuses everywhere and once the symptoms are there, countless others have been exposed and it’s still contagious while one is coughing. I’ve had it and it was no fun. I would certainly like to find out why the bulk of the first available vaccine was sent to be used “inside the Beltway” while other regions of the country are still waiting and many,including colleges, have run out of the “regular” flu vaccine too.</p>
<p>Nester, a different (and more accurate, I believe) perspective is that our society has not made an adequate investment in research of alternative methods of vaccine development to speed flu vaccines to market. The current process is cumbersome and takes months. Public health is not sexy, and it is difficult to get politicians to take a long view (of anything, not just public health!). The profit margins are not high enough to entice private companies to do the research without public funding. The long wait for vaccine is no surprise to anyone who has in interest in public health and infection diseases.</p>
<p>Shortages of regular flu vaccine are not unusual in October (our region always seems to get some, runs out, then gets more). I usually get a regular flu shot in November, and that is sufficient given the timing of normal winter flu outbreaks. Again, production volume is a guessing game for the companies (might be a lot higher interest this year in the regular vaccine), and they don’t want to produce a lot of vaccine that is wasted.</p>
<p>Mezzo’sMom, got any reputable news source for your claim that the bulk of the first available vaccine went to “inside the Beltway”? I don’t see any previous posts in this thread about it.</p>
<p>Okay, update time. DD left work at lunch today and told me tonight she was no worse, but no better. She admitted the chest pain was unsettling but also felt I was freaking myself out a bit. So I suggested a compromise – paging her primary care doctor (who’s only actually seen her once because she sees her specialist all the time) and telling him she needed a refill on her inhalers and asking him his opinion of the whole thing - whether she should come in tomorrow, start Tamiflu tonight or if he felt she should wait. He listened (unlike the doctor yesterday who DD said didn’t really tune in) and said he was going to phone in a prescription for inhalers, for Tamiflu and for strong antibiotics because he felt she had something going on in her lungs (unlike yesterday’s doctor who said “whatever you do, don’t take antibiotics”). He said he was playing it safe because she is immune suppressed and has asthma with chest pain. He didn’t want to wait to find out if it was H1N1 because he didn’t want more hours to pass without Tamiflu – he just wanted to be aggressive and play it safe. I only wish now that I’d advised her to call him instead of the doctor she called yesterday, but it’s water under the bridge now. This doctor said the other one must not have been listening closely yesterday and just wanted to assume she was okay. I find that upsetting. She’s supposed to call her specialist if she gets any kind of infection at all because of the medication she takes – he should have really tuned in. But I’m grateful to the posters here (momof3 in particular) who urged me to stay on it and to my daughter who cared enough about my peace of mind to make the call. I feel better now.</p>