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Original poster

To think people may have already had coronavirus?

435 replies

minniebo · 01/03/2020 10:45

I had pneumonia recently, pretty severe, hospitalised. Everyone I've told has said, 'it's weird how many people have said they've had pneumonia in the last month or two.' Yes I know it's the season for these things but it's a bit unusual that so many young and fit people have had pneumonia.

Just out of interest, has anyone you know had pneumonia in the last month or so (in the UK)?

OP posts:
Rainbowunicat · 01/03/2020 10:51

Not pneumonia, but some really 'strange' flu-like viruses. By strange I mean not following the usual patterns of colds/flu. There was one that went round my work which started with a dry cough, then seemingly full blown flu (I couldn't get out of bed for 3 days) and then a horrible sore throat for about a week. At least 5 of us followed the same pattern, 2 people needed antibiotics for chest infections.
There may be some logic in what you're saying.

Notcontent · 01/03/2020 10:51

I am not sure, but I was just thinking the other day that there could be lots of people out there with mild symptoms who have not been diagnosed.

PatternedQuilt · 01/03/2020 10:55

Yep! Me and three of my friends (all healthy, fit mums- none of our children got it). We all had a really bad virus fluey thing, all the symptoms of coronavirus, one developed into pneumonia and was hospitalised. The first reports of coronavirus were coming out when we were beginning to recover.

Chillicheese123 · 01/03/2020 10:55

My entire family had a terrible flu like illness with bad coughs over Christmas that took nearly 6 weeks to shake off. I’ve never had a bad chest in my life but I had it and was chugging robitussin like water. My niece who has never so much as sneezes a couple of times was flattened by it and needed. A blue inhaler for a while. My dad thinks we all had corona off a child we know who went to China in October ...

Connie222 · 01/03/2020 10:57

I had pneumonia just before Christmas. Never been sick a day in all my 40 years other than mild colds. It was a real shock.

GreyCloudsandSunshine · 01/03/2020 10:58

Definitely I think, few weeks ago I was begging for help with my daughter I was so exhausted, bad cough, couldn;t get out of bed. Started as a bit of a cold. My daughter and her classmates seemed to avoid getting it but several of us parents had it.

PlausibleSuit · 01/03/2020 11:01

Yes, I've wondered this. I had the awful cough-led thing in January; I wouldn't quite describe it as flu but it was way worse than any cold I've had. Horrible, awful turn-your-lungs-inside-out cough, short of breath, bit of a temperature. I was in bed for two days (which is very unusual for me). Then congestion for ever (or seemed like).

I mean, who can ever know and it might just have been a horrible cold. But I have wondered recently.

Thelnebriati · 01/03/2020 11:02

Not pneumonia, both me and adult DS had the same as Rainbowunicat. Ds works in retail and brought it home from work, then passed it to me. I was hallucinating for 3 nights. I had a very bad chest for weeks, I felt like I couldn't breathe, I couldn't even walk to the shops. I spent a fortune in taxis. It lasted for weeks, but when it was finished it passed really quickly.

AvocadoOwl · 01/03/2020 11:03

As far as I'm aware PHE have been closely monitoring flu and pneumonia levels since Coronavirus arrived on the scene, in order to identify any increases beyond usual seasonal levels that would point to an outbreak. I think if there had been a large number of extra cases in previous weeks it would have been picked up. Hancock was talking about it in parliament last week.

The situation might have changed now though.

Aragog · 01/03/2020 11:15

I had pneumonia around the time of the swine flu outbreak. As I was hospitalised I was swabbed and checked as routine but didn't have swine flu as it happens. I'd imagine anyone taken in with something like pneumonia would be tested at the moment, surely.

It was definitely determined with swine flu that there were many people who would have had it but not been aware. Like many viruses I'd imagine it affects people in varying degrees.

swingchandelier · 01/03/2020 11:21

It’s just viral illnesses. I had exactly the same. Fluey then awful dry cough that lasted 10 weeks. But this was 2018. I also, sadly, know a healthy young man who died of the flu about 10 years ago.

PHE monitor these things carefully, anecdotal tales of viral illnesses aren’t much use

BrieAndChilli · 01/03/2020 11:22

Me and DH had the exact same symptoms as the corona virus right after Christmas. Kids had a very mild version that lasted 1 day.
Me and DH had never had a cough like it.

InglouriousBasterd · 01/03/2020 11:23

Definitely! I suspect the number of people who have had a bit of a cough And basically presented mildly is massive. Look at the Surrey case - no contact with anyone who has travelled / travelled himself. He’s picked it up locally.

Corona19 · 01/03/2020 11:25

I think people may have had it already too. If China were suppressing the doctor who identified clusters of SARS like flu symptoms from talking, imagine how many students and tourists left the country in that time?

What is worrying though, is that the virus is mutating. There is a Japanese woman who recovered and then got it again. So anyone who might have had it, isn’t safe. In the worse scenario, I’m wondering if covid-19 will take the place of the common cold? Can that even happen?

Original poster
minniebo · 01/03/2020 11:25

I agree re testing for it, but I was in hospital just as news was coming out of Wuhan about the virus. So I'm unlikely to have been tested - NHS probably didn't even have a test to carry out at that stage.

Given that they're now saying the virus might have started around November in Wuhan (which keeps autocorrecting to Wigan on my phone btw Grin) I suppose it's possible that someone with the virus travelled to the UK over Christmas and it infected some people here??

Just speculating as I really found it odd that there were so many reports of people getting so ill with mystery bugs.

OP posts:
PixiePowered · 01/03/2020 11:26

I had something at the end of November/start of December.
Started off with a sore throat and a niggling feeling, aches etc.
Very suddenly (as in over the space of 12 hours) my cough became dry, chesty and sore; I struggled to take deep breaths; temperature shot up to the low 40s; couldn't stay awake (sleeping for 18 hours one day); ached all over. It was over a weekend and I took 3 days off work, my manager told me to get myself to the gp as an emergency appointment after hearing me on the phone. After 5 days the temperature fell and the aches subsided but the cough stayed with me until after Christmas. Even now my chest area doesn't feel quite right and I've got an on/off dry cough.

Never rally thought there was a connection though.

PeterPanGoesWrong · 01/03/2020 11:27

I don’t think ve known anyone to have pneumonia.

CallmeAngelina · 01/03/2020 11:29

Yep, same here, but neither dh, sil or I went to the GP about it, so we wouldn't register on any official poll.
Started feeling unwell a week or two before Christmas, and still have the remnants of the cough and chest now. Good days and and days/episodes regarding feeling unwell.

Catrescue1971 · 01/03/2020 11:36

I have 4 teenage children and so I have seen lots of illnesses. In early December, 2 of my dc and my dh had real proper flu (not just man flu!!) during which time I was seriously worried about them. I was like Florence Nightingale, on nurse duty, for a good 3 weeks. I actually had the flu vaccine quickly as I was worried that if I got their flu there would be nobody to look after my youngest dc. I didn't get it and the other 2 children didn't either. I'm not saying it was coronavirus but I thought about it in late December when coronavirus news appeared. It was the worst bout of illness that my family has had in my 20 years of being a mum.

Thelnebriati · 01/03/2020 11:37

We wouldn't be on on anyone's radar; our GP tells us to stay at home and drink plenty of fluids so we don't bother telling the surgery we have flu.

TheyDoDoThat · 01/03/2020 11:38

Oddly I have had not had one single cold or flu this year. I keep getting the start (that feeling that I’m about to go down with something tingly throat) but nothing materialises. I always wake up fine. I normally get sick about twice in a year often this is in the half term so my sickness record is ok. I’m a teacher so it’s hard to avoid colds and bugs.

Iv come to the conclusion (based on researching crappy movies) it’s either the calm before the storm and I’m going to be Uber sick or I am in fact patient Zero.

Thefaceofboe · 01/03/2020 11:46

I had pneumonia mid November.

PlomBear · 01/03/2020 11:51

There are always viruses. I guarantee if you search, there will be loads of posts going back years asking “does anybody else have this weird virus?”

I had flu last March, second time ever. I don’t think that was coronavirus.

Greenmarmalade · 01/03/2020 11:53

I was thinking the same. Horrible bug November/December

MilkTrayLimeBarrel · 01/03/2020 11:54

My DH had this virus last month - his cough was terrible - he still doesn't look 100% and seems short of breath. Luckily I didn't catch it, BUT I have a really annoying thing instead. I have had a sore throat on and off for nearly a week, keep thinking it's going to turn into a cold as have a slightly runny nose, and then it clears up for a while, only for me to wake up the next night with a bad sore throat again! It's a weird thing.