Has the flu hit your friends and family?

[mmbrad02]

It's spreading in our area, but knock on strong wood our family of 3 has remained well so far. We have all had flu shots now, I was the last one and I hit the two week mark tomorrow thankfully.

DD went to an overnight 4H middle school retreat last Monday and came home with a snotty nose. Thankfully that's all it has been, no fever and not really feeling bad at all.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Flu is bad here. A work friend has it now, along with his wife and daughter.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Knock on wood, I couldn’t tell you the last time I had the flu. I’m talking 20-30 years at least. My husband worked for a school/church for over 40 years before retiring this year too. I’ve also never had a flu shot, nor has he.

 

[georgina]

I don't know anyone who has/had the flu. In addition to my yearly flu shot, PCP had me get Prevnar 20 shot this year also. I tend to get serious breathing problems with respiratory illness. Think 9 month old grandson had RSV a few weeks ago, cough lingered for 3 weeks.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

It (US circulation) started much, much earlier this year. Typically flu isn't rampant until mid Dec or even early Jan. It started getting bad in early October this year - the time when most people are, you know, scheduling or getting their flu shots for the upcoming season. You can see it on the CDC maps here https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm. Stay healthy everyone.

 

[Wendy1985]

Yes two gym friends

 

[ronandannette]

Not yet here. RSV is the big illness hitting here right now but covid is still the big one.

Good gravy - yes; this has been all over our news for weeks now. City schools are reporting absentee rates past 20% in some and our Children's Hospital is over-capacity. Kids are spiking emergency-level fevers because Canada has a nation-wide shortage of children's tylenol and ibuprophen. It's a crisis.
https://www.orangevilletoday.ca/202...l-shortage-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/

 

[tvguy]

Good gravy - yes; this has been all over our news for weeks now. City schools are reporting absentee rates past 20% in some and our Children's Hospital is over-capacity. Kids are spiking emergency-level fevers because Canada has a nation-wide shortage of children's tylenol and ibuprophen. It's a crisis.
https://www.orangevilletoday.ca/202...l-shortage-heres-everything-you-need-to-know/

Both my Grandaughters caught it. 3 year old weathered it fine with some amoxicillan. 8 month old had to go to the ER for a breathing treatment and then amoxicillan. Both doing fine now.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Not yet here. RSV is the big illness hitting here right now but covid is still the big one.

Yeah that's been the common news. I was reading that in part an immunity gap cropped up which is also explaining why adults in larger than expected numbers are getting it as well. I don't know anyone personally yet who has gotten it (it is however reported all over locally in regards to hospitals) but it's now just added to the list of possible things it could be should sickness strike.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

So far I don't know someone personally with the flu but looking at the flu map (most updated) it has my state and the one next to me as the lower portion of moderate. That said my husband has been doing a lot of traveling (he's out of town right now as well) and is visiting places with much higher levels so fingers crossed here.

We both got our flu shots a month ago though. I am also wondering the strain match percentage this year as well.

 

[ShirikiUtundu]

Both my Grandaughters caught it. 3 year old weathered it fine with some amoxicillan. 8 month old had to go to the ER for a breathing treatment and then amoxicillan. Both doing fine now.

Unfortunately, overprescription of antibiotics for viral infections like this has led to an amoxicillin shortage.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My daughter’s bf is a respiratory therapist at a hospital here and they are slammed with flu, covid and rsv. We were just talking about this yesterday. Our hospitals are full.

This just reminds me there are other things too. One of the elementary schools close to me closed down for a week late October due to norovirus. From what the descriptions were it sounded like that rather than initially suspecting covid but you can bet that, RSV and the flu were big concerns.

The health department did confirm it was norovirus although I'm not sure if they pinpointed exactly where in the school it originated from. No other schools were impacted. I don't know how many staff they have but that school had about 540 students and between the staff and the students 150 were out.

 

[leahgoogle]

Covid seems to have largely disappeared around here. I will get the VERY occasional covid notification email from school but it's always just like 1 case here and there.

I'm always interested on how other school districts are handling covid. We have not had covid notifications from our schools since the 2020-2021 school year. I have no idea how many cases are currently in the schools. But, we live in a rural community with 1,200 kids total in K-12 all in one building. No masks required since the 2020-2021 school year. The vast majority of our parents are ok with both of these things. I know the bigger cities are handling covid differently.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Both my Grandaughters caught it. 3 year old weathered it fine with some amoxicillan. 8 month old had to go to the ER for a breathing treatment and then amoxicillan. Both doing fine now.

Aren't antibiotics for bacterial infections?

 

[tvguy]

Aren't antibiotics for bacterial infections?

I'm not a Doctor but they both were diagnosed with RSV and both given Amoxicilan.

 

[robinb]

No, but I think that my DH and both I have RSV. We're both OK, but still have residual cough and congestion.

 

[ronandannette]

I'm not a Doctor but they both were diagnosed with RSV and both given Amoxicilan.

Neither am I but I am quite certain that: a) RSV is viral; and b) antibiotics do not kill viruses.

Unless the doctor determined some secondary bacterial infection, which often happens opportunistically with respiratory viral illnesses, antibiotics would do nothing to aid in recovery from RSV. It kind of surprises me to hear people talking of over-prescribing anti-biotics; I thought that went out 10 years ago. Here it's VERY difficult to get antibiotics without a lab-confirmed bacterial infection. The downside is one sometimes has to suffer for a day or two with a UTI or strep or the like, while waiting to get an RX.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Antibiotics are for the pneumonia that accompanies Flu and other viruses, H1N1 nearly killed my DD in 2009 when the bacteria got into her blood.
The messy goop Flu creates becomes very friendly to bacteria in the air and once it settles in the lungs, well, getting to the blood is a very small jump.
Diagnosed that Friday, we all got TamiFlu but by Monday she had both lungs filling with fluid and a blood infection.
Look for extreme lethargy, inability to stay upright, she became like a rag doll.
Watch for an inability to blow out, like to blow out a candle.
When it got into her blood Sunday night the fever would not budge, not with Tylenol or Motrin and not even with a lukewarm bath, which was my mom trick that always worked to help get a fever down a bit then fever would usually stay down with Motrin and Tylenol.
This was a different beast but I ignored my instincts because my pediatrician and pulmonary Dr went out of their way to make me feel like an panicky idiot.
Know when I learned the signs I am sharing? In the hospital quarantine after admitted, on my knees praying for 10 days by myself as DH managed DS. It would have been useful to know ahead of time.... I still hold that grudge - it reminds me to be vigilant. One lesson I will never forget.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

but I haven't heard anyone say if they are accurate to the strain that is going around, so I wonder how effective the shots will be this year.

I read on Fortune that this years vaccine appears to be at least 50% effective in preventing serious illness leading to hospitalization.

A good year they're happy to get 40-60% efficacy.

 

[tvguy]

Neither am I but I am quite certain that: a) RSV is viral; and b) antibiotics do not kill viruses.

Unless the doctor determined some secondary bacterial infection, which often happens opportunistically with respiratory viral illnesses, antibiotics would do nothing to aid in recovery from RSV. It kind of surprises me to hear people talking of over-prescribing anti-biotics; I thought that went out 10 years ago. Here it's VERY difficult to get antibiotics without a lab-confirmed bacterial infection. The downside is one sometimes has to suffer for a day or two with a UTI or strep or the like, while waiting to get an RX.

Correct. The Amoxicllin is prescribed because patients with RSV often are at risk of secondary bacterial infections according to what the Doctors told my son and DIL.