We got H1N1. No vaccine. D2 brought it home – she caught it from a kid at the State Fair in the same exhibition group for their insect collections. He was visibly sick & coughing, sitting next to her. Then I caught it from her after taking care of her for a week. You’d know if you had it, I think. We both felt like we’d been hit by a truck.
I wish health care workers would not shake hands, on several occasions I have refused to shake the hands of health care workers. Drs seem stunned when I have kindly refused to shake- and each time I’m more stunned they are surprised ! I don’t get this custom during epidemics !
Most healthcare workers are meticulous about washing their hands - all the time, between each patient. I’m not sure they are the ones you should be concerned about.
I thought this was interesting regarding people manifesting flu symptoms. The arrival is from NBC but the info on taken from an academic journal.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/44275043/ns/health-cold_and_flu/t/why-some-people-dont-get-flu/
^^^^Interesting article.
I remember the so-called Spanish flu epidemic during the World War I time hit “able-bodied” young men the hardest, and I think the theory was the strong immune responses from these people were the deadly forces behind the high mortality rate among young and strong.
^^^Yes, the immune systems of healthy people went into overdrive, causing a “cytokine storm,” killing many previously hearty young people. Estimates of the death toll have gone as high as 50 million worldwide. That’s pretty hard to fathom, even if it was only half that.
When my kids have been around 9, they have all read the young reader Hero Over Here about a boy during WWI and the flu epidemic. It is hard to fathom that that flu killed more people than the war. That book has made an impact on all of them. It is not a fact any of them have ever forgotten.
My great grandmother died from the Spanish flu when my grandfather was a toddler. I know I have told the story before of my next door neighbor who almost died from H1N1. One of the many reasons everyone in my family gets a flu shot. He was in a coma for weeks and then had to go to a rehab facility. He can not longer drive or practice law. He was in his early 50’s when this happened and he had no underlying medical conditions.
Flu claims another healthy person in CA:
Mr. Fang is getting his flu shot today if I have to knock him unconscious and drag him.
Still reminding S2 to get his flu shot. His excuse - “I keep forgetting”. He works full-time and goes to grad school part-time, so getting the flu would be problematic.
@shellfell, ditto with D2. She’s very needle phobic, but she’s in law school and just cannot afford to be sick. In addition to the heavy load of law school, she’s on Law Review and another organization which makes many demands on her time. It really frustrates me that she won’t get vaccinated.
Guessing S has not gotten his either 
.
@Nrdsb4 —yep, their reasoning just doesn’t make sense sometimes.
I just had to bench a law student from classes last week. And then it turned into pneumonia requiring a 2 day hospital stay. I would say he has missed 8-10 days of school now. I don’t even want to think about his workload.
So avoiding a needle because one is needle phobic could potentially earn them multiple needles if IVs and other injections are needed due to secondary complications.
“I just had to bench a law student from classes last week.” What does this mean? You told him to go home and take his germs with him?
@“Cardinal Fang” —ha! No pun was intended.
Told him no classes, no activities.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/12/california-flu-deaths-jump-to-at-least-42-bay-area-reports-16/ has more details, including that she had a car crash injury that had not fully healed and became infected, so it is possible that a combination of that infection and the influenza infection was deadly when either alone would not be.
Thanks for the additional details. My first though was maybe she was recovering from a long race, which can take a toll on the immune system in some folks.
I haven’t read all posts. I got the flu shot in October. Monday night at dinner, I noticed I had a cough that came out if no where. Tuesday, chills and exhaustion came on later in the workday. Fever 100.8. Wednesday morning I had a drs appt with a flu test. Fever was 98.9 so it doesn’t really count. The flu test revealed a positive result very quickly.
I took tamiflu and had the unfortunate vomiting side effect 2 hours later. (Dr. Google was more helpful than the doctor’s office, thanks to the UK Health Service documents on the web). My energy had big variations throughout the day. I took a second dose last night and survived without vomiting, although there was threatened disruption at midnight. No fever this morning.
I’ve been pretty vigilant because a friend in another city had a pretty bad case and was in bed for a week. I have no idea who I cought this from and the general thought is one is contagious for a day before the onset of the flu and the incubation period is 1-4 days with an average of 2 days.
My daughter said her college is sending diagnosed flu cases home. That’s a concern!