To think people may have already had coronavirus?

[minniebo]

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)?

I had an awful flu type thing about 4 weeks ago and actually ended up being put on oxygen and a nebuliser in a and e. The same cough has reappeared today- don’t think it’s covid but I’m self isolating in case. I wfh anyway so not a big change for me

Independent are just reporting on the first case of Covid-19 now being confirmed in China back in November

I am not surprised

Sorry that was the guardian.

First official case recorded 17th November

So it was around before then easily

I haven't had pneumonia but I had awful flu in January. Never had it before and I'm in my 30s.

The amount of people who travel to and from Wuhan to U.K., Europe and USA would explain the widespread cases and numbers (now we know it’s likely closer to 10k in U.K. alone)

There’s a part of me that finds this very reassuring

Don't think it was Covid19 though. Just something really awful for kids. Our two (both teens) were really quite poorly with that virus (no underlying health problems). The adults escaped with not so much as a sniffle. The pattern of that illness would suggest it's unlikely to have been COVID-19.

I had bronchitis about 3 weeks ago that hospitalised me. All the exact symptoms of corona. The only thing making think it wasn’t that is that no one else in my house had it.

I work at a university where I help international students every day, including many Chinese and some from Wuhan. At the end of November I came down with an awful flu , high temperature, aching body - I have never felt so ill. Afterwards it took me ages to recover and I developed a cough and breathing problems . I also passed this onto colleagues who were equally ill , 2 with breathing problems that continued for a month afterwards. It was scary and shook me that I could get so ill at the age of 43. I now believe that this could have been Covid 19 or if that's not possible, a different strain of coronavirus. To muddy the waters, we had family staying with us from Milan the week before.

I also think that is going on since end of last year. My couple of friends was seriously ill with high temperature and cough end of last year beginning of this one. My mum in Poland also was very ill at the beginning of this year like covid.

I live in Brighton in the uk and had exactly the same symptoms of Coronavirus for a few weeks in February/March . Runny nose, head ache, really persistent cough that was waking me up every hour then short and troubled breathing And actually I still feel a bit like now.
I have ADHD and my meds raise my temperature so maybe they were masking that I had a fever too.
Went to the doctor and they just gave me an inhaler and told me to take a lung test. I tried the test and couldn’t breathe so failed it and was told to come back week later but the breathlessness had passed by then. I was taking ibuprofen a lot during and now they are saying this could prolong the virus so have stopped. Still a bit breathless. I think I had it.
I work in a busy hotel and have Spanish, Italian and multiple nationalities colleagues plus a lot of Chinese and Asian customers. Other people had the same bug too including my boss.
I live about 300 metres from where the first super spreader visited too!

As China didn’t report it to the WHO for 5 weeks or more, how many travelled in and out of the area in that time?

It seemed to peak in people I knew shortly after the Chinese New Year. Maybe overthinking it but friends visiting relatives in China for the NY, people holidaying in Jan in places like Thailand and then bringing it back unknowingly. I kind of hope it was covid because then I can stop working myself up

I was convinced I'd had it over Christmas. I was so ill. I now definitely have it and it's nothing like the flu I had. It's a strange feeling.

I think I had coronavirus had flu like symptoms dry cough for over a week in February was given antibiotics and prednisone as it went to the chest and it would not shift so had the total of 42 tabs of antibiotics finally seem better never had that sort of cough before

I've been reading this link with interest, I live up in the scottish highlands, right on the whisky trail, and we have huge numbers of chinese tourists around on distillery tours, back in December, loads of people up here including my family, had these symptoms, and it took about a month to recover, hacking dry cough, temperature, etc never had such a severe flu type condition before, notice that mapping currently not showing a great level of infection up here ? Know we are rural, but we know the info from china hasn't been totally clear, of interest know a local care home lost a fair few clients in a very short time, during the pre christmas period.

I believe, as many others do, that the virus had already paid a visit to the UK, long before it was flagged up as being a real problem. My daughter went down with like a ton of bricks at the beginning of December. I had a phone call from her asking me to go over, get the children's supper and put them to bed. When I got there I was horrified. She looked and sounded awful. Her temperature was sky high - 41 and she also had an awful cough. I got the children their supper, the older two didn't need my help with bathing, but the 6 year old did. So after they were all in bed, I returned home, got a change of clothes and my night things and went back. My son in law was away at the time, but he was willing to return home. I told him to stay away as probably safer, as I hadn't seen anything such as I was witnessing in my whole 72 years. My daughter was coughing non stop and at times couldn't get her breath. She wouldn't allow the children into the room and would hardly let me near her. So, I used to cover my face with my t shirt pulled up over my nose and put lots of drinks on her bed side table. She was delirious some of the time. I had to drag the duvet and blanket off her as she was so hot, but she complained she felt cold. This continued for three days until she began to whistle every time she took a breath. I decided enough was enough, and after persuading her that the only way for this to improve was to get medical help, she gave me the number of the doctor. They have a brilliant surgery and a dedicated urgent patient system and after DD managed to dress herself and slowly walk down the stairs, to the car, we got to the surgery in time for the appointment. Every step she took was painful. She was told she had a respiratory infection, given a strong antibiotic, an inhaler and I took her back home. By the weekend she was feeling a lot better, no more whistling as she breathed but still that awful cough. I went down with something between Christmas and New year, no energy but no cough. High temperature that came and went, and this lasted two weeks. But I didn't need any medical assistance. So many people around where I live (Shropshire) experienced similar things, from upset stomach at the start, then progressing through to similar experiences as my daughter had. They said they'd never felt so ill. I think they're locking the door after the horse bolted. If you look on the Government website and input flu numbers, there was an unusual spike. Many of my friends didn't go to the doctors. I would say one in three people I know did visit as they needed something to shift the infection from their chests. The PHE figures on the Gov.uk site doesn't give the numbers who were ill but the numbers of fatalities. It was above average.

[edited by MNHQ to remove names]

It's extremely shocking reading some of these posts as I myself have been battling chest infections since Sept 2019. Third infection in Feb 2020 that led to pneumonia so sever I though I was having a heart attack. I immediately chewed two 81mg aspirin then I leaned over on top of my counter top and when I did the pain subsided in my chest so I thought this can't be a heart attack. Long story short I went to the clinic next day got meds with puffers and took x-rays. Couple days later they phoned and said I have pneumonia and to continue with meds until gone and to return for further x-rays when finished meds. Never made it back since. I'm not sure if it was coronavirus but the symptoms were exactly the same. Guess I'll never know. Still feel like crap.

These were my symptoms back beginning of January lasting around 5 weeks into beginning of feb -

Sever migraines on and off for days
Sore throat (terrible)
Fever for days (no idea how hot but drenching sheets)
Achy
Struggle to get upstairs
No energy
No mood
Constant nauseous feeling without being sick
No appetite for weeks
But ... only a very minimal barely there dry cough, worse at night

@wherestheotherone have you been tested?

Nope

I had the flu bug in December and thought similarly I must have had it. I have now had what I believe to be covid 19 and it is a very different beast. In its mild form it was like bad flu. I don't want to know what it's like in moderate to severe.

I have symptoms but a cough and high temperature did not come till later. I therefore must have spread it before I knew I had it

My symptoms, I didn't isolate until day 5 because I didn't have a cough or fever till later on 😞. I must have spread it, I'm sorry 😞. I question the NHS symptom advice. A lot of people will have it and think it's something else. I have lost 17lbs in 6 days, I'm quite shocked at this.

Day 1 sore throat
Day 2 sore throat and headache
Day 3 sore throat and headache
Day 4 sore throat, headache tight chest but just like mild asthma, upper chest, thought nothing of it. Feel like need to clear my throat a lot.
Day 5 sore throat, headache, tight upper chest, feel very restricted and began to burn, like really burn, neck and shoulder pain, need to clear throat. DD starts coughing, the family isolate.
Day 6 aches, pains, villa and shivers, tired, dizzy, burning lungs, throat and wind pipe, like acid reflux and heartburn, back ache, no appetite, so very thirsty. I start to cough but not a lot, it hurts.
Day 7 same as above but with chills cannot get out of bed, exhausted, some mild stabbing pains I'm lower lungs. My lungs hurt..
Day 8 same as above but woke up feeling well, then it came back more intense, couldn't move, sore stomach, diarrhea, acid reflux feeling very prevalent. I start to cough more, it burns and hurts a lot.
Day 9, woke up feeling better, chest feels better but then bam out of nowhere feel like I'd been hit by a bus (can't lift my head off the pillow), stomach upset, nauseous, diarrhea, chills and flushes, very thirsty, temp starts to go up. Lungs hurt, sharp pains increase This was a bad day.
Day 10 more energy until I move. I actually get a bit hungry have some toast then begin to feel really sick, diarrhea, chills, neck and shoulders so very stiff and hurt. Lungs hurt.
Day 11 not to as long as I don't move, lower lungs hurt, back ache, waves of feel very dizzy, sick, exhausted, i want toast but regret it. Very thirsty! Coughing more.
Day 12 waves of feeling ill like previous but sometimes Ok, lungs feel swollen, body stiff and a bit sore, coughing.
Day 13 wake up feeling good. Horrible taste in mouth, so thirsty, I could breath better, more energy, some appetite. Get up and ok for a bit. Coughing a lot, neck stiff and sore. Breathing becomes tight again and sore but eases quickly -this is today.

Thank you wherestheotherone for the detail. Wish you better soon and please update your progress on this thread.

Late October/early November last year we had the worst virus we can remember having as adults in this household (we're in our late 40s/early 50s).

We nicknamed it the Zombie Flu as it took around 6 weeks to go in total. You would just think it had gone and it would rear its hideous head again in a slightly different form. Neither of us are particularly prone to colds and 'flu in general. This was so bad that for the first time ever I debated paying for the 'flu jab.

Partner is a nurse (elderly care mainly although not in an NHS hospital, in the care home system locally, we live in a beautiful, rural part of England with a warm, if wet, climate, that has quite an elderly demographic overall - we both used to work for the NHS, them on the nursing side and me in admin/learning), and thinking back, they remember someone who had been working in China visiting their ill parent in the home they were working at, around the same time as we got sick. Many members of staff there got sick at the same time and we both remember it happening very quickly. And we're used to the drill of making sure clothing is changed, stuck in the washing machine at 60 degrees at least, items sanitised, gloves etc if there's been any contact with anything horrid, but this still got through.

That's as much as we can remember at the moment about the probable rate of transmission (we've had a couple of bereavements since and other family stuff to deal with too) but this was a virus like no other either of us had come across. And they grew up and trained in South Africa, so they're used to working in a resource poor environment where infections are endemic.

The only other time, as an adult, I've been quite as ill as we were last autumn was when I taught English (high school level) for a couple of years in the Far East. And I was 30 years younger then, so threw it off much faster.

I've never had headaches like it; I honestly thought it was the beginning of a brain tumour. We weren't particularly snotty or sneezy, but our coughs were so bad I think we tried every brand of cough mixture available on the market, plus our own concoctions of honey and lemon and whisky (that went down like a lead balloon, when I used the good Bushmills and the even better limited edition Scotch....). We also tried other ways of combating it (steam inhalation, Olbas oil, Vicks, every aromatherapy oil I knew was safe, menthol crystals dissolved in hot water, mini-nebuliser, you name it). We found our temperature fluctuated a lot as well - we did buy a very basic thermometer, but again, having trained in South Africa, they're very good at being able to do observations we've largely lost the knowledge of here. We've become so reliant on technology.

Although we both have underlying chronic health conditions they're not respiratory; my dad had very bad lung problems but he didn't pass them on to me.

I'm not saying what we had was what they're now calling COVID-19 by any means, but the first COVID-19 case(s) was/were NOTIFIED to the WHO at the end of December last year. When the antibody tests are available I would be interested to be tested if the possibility was there (but obviously not ahead of someone who really needed it).

Just a shout out here for all the medics and nurses and delivery people and teachers and everyone else doing an amazing job at keeping us all going, and good thoughts and (suitably socially distanced) hugs to everyone else.