Dammit, I want sympathy

[venta]

I think I've got 'flu :(

Some of you might be familiar with my rant about 'flu.

Have you ever noticed that nobody ever takes a day off work because they've got a cold ? They always take a day off for 'flu. For ages now I've been trying to get the cold reinstated as something people take seriously - you can feel bloody awful with a cold; you don't need to claim 'flu to take time off. And regardless of what the Lemsip adverts say, you don't get better from 'flu in a day. People die of 'flu.

While I don't think my death is imminent, I think I'm justified in applying to have my cold upgraded. I'd list symptoms to demonstrate my claim, but fear it'd make very dull reading.

Comments

Re: Vaccines..

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

That's only amalgamated statistical data by region, though. If I claimed to have caught a 'flu strain which was reported as only being present in, say, China, then I doubt that the WHO would stand up in court and call me a liar. Especially if I hang around airports a lot.

And, more to the point, what proportion of 'flu cases are never identified as belonging to a particular strain and therefore don't appear in the statistics?

Re: Vaccines..

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

If you caught a strain that was only found in China then either you were hanging around airports or you were one of the first in a predicted wave. The 'Flu tracking system is getting better every year and has a very well mapped and studies transmission system. It isn't 100% perfect but it is very good.
More importantly if there was blanket vaccination then the chances of the ariport hanger on getting the strain would be reduced in two ways:
1) There would be fewer carriers of other strains entering the UK because they would have been vaccinated against their local strains.
2) People like airport workers, health workers etc are often vaccinated against more diseases than the general population and are likely to have had the additional strain vaccinations.

Another point is that new 'flu strains tend to appear in the same parts of the world with occasional exceptions. The 'flu virus which caused havoc during the second world war originated in the US because of unusual conditions in army barracks.

I'm not sure what percentage of cases are never identified but the strains are likely to be caught overall because of the infectiousness of 'Flu, an new strain will, unless significantly reduced in infectiousness or increased in virulence, spread and be caught in a check.

Re: Vaccines..

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

More importantly if there was blanket vaccination then the chances of the ariport hanger on getting the strain would be reduced in two ways:

1) There would be fewer carriers of other strains entering the UK

All very well, but global blanket vaccination against 'flu surely isn't feasible? Not only because of needing 6 billion 'flu jabs per year, but because in order to vaccinate against 'flu you have to have first globally vaccinated against everything that's higher on the list of important things to deal with - polio is on the resurge, then there's yellow fever and typhoid to worry about before we do anything else.

Re: Vaccines..

[leathellin.livejournal.com]

To be fair blanket vaccination in this country isn't the ideal solution, we are just more likely to manage that sooner than the ideal solution.

Ideally there should be blanket vaccination in Hong Kong, China and a couple of other area's of the far east which is where the vast majority of strains originate from. There should also then be a mandatory vaccination certificate needed for entry into those countries (like the Yellow Fever scheme). This would cut down the world wide incidence of 'Flu by some large significant percentage. There would then only be the occasional oddity to deal with.

Oh and because lj user="chrestomany"> said this:
The Gibbon's flu is also not recorded by the BMJ, and The Gibbon doubts the other 4 people in the office who caught it (and gave it to The Gibbon, who incidentally may have passed it on to you) contacted relevant health authorities either.

I would also like to say that the strain variation of 'Flu happens on a fairly longterm basis so long as a couple of people in that oubreak overall have been tested the strain will have been registered.