To think I’ve had COVID 19, and it’s been here a while?

[VivienScott]

After Xmas I came down with what I thought was a terrible cold. Dry persistent cough, terrible fever, worse than I’ve ever had to the point I was delirious, difficulty breathing, though not pneumonia. Saw out of hours and they check oxygen levels, chest etc, said I was ok to be home, but I was not first case they’d seen like this and there was “something really awful going round this year”. Consequently had to see GP who said he’d had to hospitalise a lot more people than normal for breathing difficulties.
It all sounds exactly like coronavirus, it really felt like something dreadful to the extent I deliberately kept myself from others more than I would with a cold. I honestly believe it was, but it’s way before it was supposed to be in Europe let alone here in UK. What do you think, AIBU to think it’s been here longer than we’re aware?

The test is only for live virus. Having a test for covid 19 now won’t show a positive unless you have a viral load big enough to be detected in the swab. It will come back negative if you’ve recovered and aren’t shedding virus.

The other test is for antibodies to the virus. That test isn’t available yet as it’s still being worked on by scientists.

There’s no point in “getting a test” to see if you’ve had it... the virus won’t show up, and that test is needed for those who are being hospitalised, as treatment is different if you test positive, and the nurses and doctors and police etc who need a test regularly to make sure they don’t infect patients.

If you feel unwell, having a test won’t make any difference to your treatment, you’re to self isolate and phone your GP.

If you need help to breathe, then you’ll go to hospital and be tested.

If you have a mild dose, stay at home, and keep to a bedroom away from everyone, and wash your hands.

My 4 year old was hospitalised in December with what seemed like flu, within hours of arriving at hospital (due to becoming unresponsive and GP having sepsis concerns) he was given an oxygen mask due to a dip in his oxygen levels and at one point there was talk of moving him to IC because of his breathing/oxygen levels.
He was in for Four days, I came down with it on day 2 and was terrified I'd suffocate, whilst in the hospital, the staff gave me an oxygen mask and were trying to convince me to stay in overnight after he was discharged.

When I asked what we had and what had gone wrong I was told Flu viruses come in many forms and there was a particularly nasty form of it floating about that the vaccine had not been made for, my son has a compromised immune system so that nearly made sense, But I don't have any underlying issues and I swear I was genuinely fearful I would die at times.

If that was Coronavirus then me and my son would have been spreading it all over that hospital and his school but that doesn't seem to have happened (I didn't read about a spike in deaths in Paediatric ward)

Thanks, I understand how the tests work

I’m talking less about testing to determine a treatment plan for individuals but more in respect of guiding planning and strategy for dealing with the virus. How can you fight something if you don’t know how prevalent it is?

YANBU. The first detected case was in China on 17th November, and therefore it's pretty safe to say it was present in London at that time as well (if not earlier, assuming the fairly complicated process of detection took place a while after the infection had already started). The are millions and millions of international travellers every year from China. It's almost impossible that the virus didn't make it's way to other countries before Christmas, in my humble opinion.

Health practitioners won't want to talk about this to patients though; they wouldn't want to be held responsible for making these claims and telling patients these things.

To be honest the more I hear from friends and acquaintances over the last few days the less I think I may have had covid at end of Jan anyway. I know of 3 people who have been hospitalised, another one who said she suffered at home for 14 days and it was the worst illness she’d ever experienced and I’ve seen pictures of someone down the end of our road being carted off to hospital on a trolley with paramedics in hazmat suits. This virus is on a different level. Stay safe everyone.

Well, the thing is Heredefenders, the virus is in the community, so testing everyone, while would be a nice experiment, the money is needed for PPE and ventilators, and testing people who have to do essential work with others and may spread it to others- NHS staff and police etc..

Assume you’ve got it, and self isolate.

If you get symptoms, isolate in a room in your house and call your GP, and then, if you need help to breathe, call your GP or 911 and let them assess you in a pod.

Then they might test you then as it has bearing on how they need to protect themselves to treat you.

Knowing you have it is a luxury. The test isn’t important at all clinically, unless you need help to breathe. There’s no treatment other than that.

Isolating yourself is, as it halts transmission.

Yes I’ve read the guidance and don’t worry I’m sticking to all the rules. If we had followed the WHO approach of test test test we may have been able to prevent it getting to the scale it has, is my point. We aren’t even testing people on the frontline at the moment in nearly the quantities we should have. I appreciate I’m back of the queue and have NO problem with that.

I agree that more testing is needed and urgently. The experts need data to work with to figure out the best policy responses.

Testing in Italy (Vo) suggests up to half of cases may be asymptomatic so lots of people may well test positive on antibody tests having had it in March. I seriously hope I do!!

I saw this chart on twitter which compared Iceland (extensive testing) to Netherlands (little testing, only when symptomatic) and the results are pretty interesting. Of course other factors may be at play but it’s likely there are a lot of younger people wandering around who are asymptomatic. I think the Vo results were similar ?

Perhaps if we had done similar testing here they would have stopped things like concerts, big football matches, Cheltenham festival going ahead to slow the spread before locking down pretty every single business? I still don’t know how you can develop a coherent strategy without knowing what you are dealing with.

I have to agree with OP.. I think it was here from November/ December time... during October/October we were frequently going to China town to get meds from a Chinese Doc.. come early dec I was knocked down with horrendous cough, high fever, weakness exactly the same.. my children got it aswell but it lasted for about 4-5 days.. whereas it was the worst sickness of my life... I would cough so much that I couldn’t breath and would gasp for air.. it lasted for about 2 weeks but cough stayed well into jan.. covid was here for a long time..

I still don’t know how you can develop a coherent strategy without knowing what you are dealing with

Educated guessing. Terrifying isn't it? It could end up being the biggest overreaction in history. But I still think the likelihood is they've got it right and the numbers of infected aren't yet huge

(As % of the population as a whole I mean)

I have to agree with you op. In January my granddad had a dry cough and he was extremely tired. It even took him a while to recognise me as he was just so tired. A few days later he ended up in hospital as his oxygen level was low. At the time i just thought that it was a bad chest infection but when i stop to think about it he has never in his life had any difficulty in throwing off any illness until this January obviously. He almost died but thankfully he is okay now. My grandma also ended up in hospital due to low oxygen levels shortly after my granddad recovered. Yes i could be barking up the wrong tree and my grandma and granddad may not have had the corona virus. However i still think that it is a bit weird how they both had a dry cough and they were subsequently both hospitalised for low oxygen levels. I am sorry for rambling.

I caught a bit of a Radio 4 health programme and they discussed this. One guest was definitely a dr, possibly a GP I think and they said how many people they saw with Covid-19 symptoms around Christmas and New Year. But if it was Coronavirus where were the increased deaths? They mentioned them being counted as flu deaths (and also that it had been a mild flu year). It really made me think about it, especially as two members of my team had this, one with a really prolonged cough that she kept describing as being unable to catch her breath. I think the consensus on the programme was it was unlikely to be Covid-19, but spookily similar

On the whole I believe the scientists on medical matters before I believe anyone else. I am not a conspiracy theorist or an alarmist or a science sceptic or a new age hippie or an alternative medicine guru or God-fearing or anything else.

I just find the absolute certainty that some are pushing that Covid19 didn't appear in the UK before January (when it was going around in China in November) is not really credible.

I travelled to Northern Europe at the beginning of January. On my return I was hit with an overwhelming sense of fatigue and began with a cough. I was bedridden for 5 days to the point I was blacking out when I stood. I ended up at the GP which I never ever do. They said it was a type of flu. I am never ill but this totally floored me. A colleague at work also contracted a similar illness - he still has a persistent cough two months later.

People get sick in winter, if it was CV there would have been increased deaths.

“ A few nurses from the hospital in Glasgow have said they had patients with it back in December.”

That’s really interesting because there is a huge Chinese student population in Glasgow right now who presumably travel back and forth regularly.

I hadn't realised the first detected case was Nov 17th. That to my mind means that it is possible that a carrier travelled to Europe in Nov and Dec. We will never know until people who are describing symptoms remarkably similar to COVID get the antibody test.

Haven’t read the whole thread, but iirc Seattle were conducting flu research and found that COVID19 had been circulating for much longer than the official information, so it’s plausible that it’s the same for other countries.

The antibody test would be positive if you had it with no symptoms though. It doesn't necessarily mean what you thought was covid19 actually was.

They'd need better information about infection rates than just antibodies tests, though that would help.

but iirc Seattle were conducting flu research and found that COVID19 had been circulating for much longer than the official information

The first verified case in the state of Washington was on 21st January.

www.doh.wa.gov/emergencies/coronavirus

I heard an expert talking about this on radio 4. Apparently lots of people have said they had all the symptoms in late December/early January. He said he didn't think the illness circulating then was Covid-19 simply because there was no increase in the death rate at that time. The deaths only started happening when they knew Covid-19 was here.