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)?

Yes. Started early November. Haven't been that I'll for a long time. Half our team of 15 people got.

Pneumonia isn't rare though, I had it this time 2 years ago and was a relatively fit 38 year old.

If it's occurred to you, I'm pretty sure it will have occurred to the public health authorities...

And the symptoms pretty much as coronavirus is described. My colleague thinks the same too. Lots of Chinese students near where I live and I got it first, so it's not impossible.

Another one that was struck down by an awful virus early December. Temperature, wheezy and chesty cough, took 8 weeks for the gunk to go and to stop coughing all the time. My teens didn’t get it, nor did DH

I then got ill around 19th dec felt awful chills/fever musxle aches. And only went out twice before xmas. Just absolutely exhausted. Then in jan i had conjuntivitis which was treated with drops. (So bacterial and noone else had it). But i did feel like i had sinusitis.

However i dont understand why there wouldnt have been a higher death count here. Unless it is so common to see lots of elderly die of viral pneumonia.

But Chinese smoke more.
I read there is a slightly different strain here.
However the uk have tested 5k or so and so many are negative.

I read SARS was biphasic so has anyone found theyve got rid of the bug and felt worse again later.

My DParents 70+ were ill before and the other after us. He is very fit and really didnt seem well. (They always have flu jab though obv this wouldnt necessarily protect depending whats going around).
My dh and dc1 had nothing.

I think the concern is if assuming the virus wasnt Covid then lots of us are already struck down from that so not fully recovered.

I don’t know. They have tested over 600 people in Scotland with a combination travellers and symptomatic and not one positive. They are rolling out the testing next week to include more people with viral symptoms but given how infectious I would have expected a positive iflots of the coughing people had Coronavirus rather than a normal cold.

Just getting over a bout of pneumonia now. Been feeling rotten for past 4 weeks.

GP and I had an eyeroll about Corona because my family were avoiding me like the plague due to press reports. Said all I was missing was the red X on the door. However she had no concerns about it being anything more suspicious.

I've had it once before 20 years ago and it felt the same in terms of symptoms.

I will say though that I haven't felt this ill for a long time, it's really knocked the stuffing out of me. I'm usually fairly fit and quite healthy, I haven't even had a cold for years.

Didn’t end up in hospitalisation but I’m sure I had something similar before and after Christmas.

What makes it Coronavirus vs a standard horrible cold I wonder?

I thought Coronaviruses were present in many cold type virus’s that go round sometimes they can be more serious but mostly a general cold

But this strain COVID-19 is different. I think if it had been present in the uk for a while we certainly would have known about it. Constant regulation over what patients are being treated for is assessed and monitored as it is in China but we are not a dictatorship and we don’t have the same fears about government involvement

On the flip side of that we wouldn’t be able to manage lock downs in the same way as they have done so in China

Yes. At Christmas I had a long lasting flu and cough for three and a half weeks. I t was not like any previous flu. It started with severe pains down either side of my chest and I had to lie down. I could not stop coughing. At one stage I did wonder if I had pneumonia. I am immuno compromised.

This is unscientific. However it did cross my mind too in light of recent events.

I’ve said this.. but not in an oh Aunty Sue had a bad cold in December must’ve been corona way. But more in a how do they know no ones ever had this before now/how do they know no ones got it but hasn’t sought out medical treatment?

DP and half the other DGOD men you see on threads won’t take a pain killer unless a limbs hanging off and won’t see a doctor for anything. Local surgery is 6weeks for an appointment and if you phoned with the main symptoms prior to the outbreak you’d have been triaged as viral paracetamol water n rest unless elderly or a small child who might get admitted for fluids/antibiotics eventually if it worsened.

But that’ll probably be the same for other viral type things. Pneumonia does seem common in nursing homes over winter.

Definitely! My partner had an awful chest infection last week and I had one a few weeks previous.

If people were coming down with complications from viral infections it would show up in our health data. It didn’t. Rates of infection are normal and there were no unexpected increases in viral infections or complications arising from viral infections.

The NHS and PHE monitor this stuff incessantly during the winter as part of their day to day and hour to hour planning. Because any increase in flu related illness, which is what people are describing, would have serious implications for the NHS. It would have known in every hospital and planning team across the country.

Even if they had no idea that there was a corona virus they would swab to confirm if patients had caught known or unknown seasonal flu. So at a basic level they would have identified a new and unknown virus. They didn’t.

If you had a flu like illness and ended up with complications, it would have been established as being caused by the flu.

Why do people seem to think there are only 4 possible viruses - the common cold, influenza, norovirus and Covid-19? There are hundreds and hundreds of different viruses! I have one myself but it's not a cold, flu, norovirus or Covid-19, it's just a random lurgy.

Absolutely OP! I've been thinking this for a while - the number of flights out of China daily, since November. We can be damn sure that this bug has been circulating for months. I've known 2 people have pneumonia this winter. We'll never know if it was CV or not.

@LemonTT that's not entirely true. I have recurrent pneumonia and have had multiple hospital admissions for flu like viruses. Never once have I ever been swabbed or tested for flu strains.

I think it was said that the virus might have been circulating undetected for a while in northern Italy before it escalated to the current situation.

@NameChange1012 that’s because there has been no increase in expected cases or complications. But hospitals do randomly test to confirm this anyway.

The contention on this thread is that hospitals and PHE missed an increase in cases. They didn’t because there wasn’t. Data backs this up.

Yes I think If they started testing patients who presented with the symptoms of Covid 19 but hadn’t been to an affected area then I think the number of cases would rocket.

Hmm maybe but don’t think so as I’m sure I read they’ve tested 10000 and only the 23 positive so far

Literally as I typed that the news flashed up about 12 more 😂

@LemonTT I don't mean in terms of circulating for months, see my comment upthread - if this was the case they would notice the deaths and intensive carr increase. But I certainly think it could circulate for a good 3/4 weeks with everyone assuming it was just a peak in the flu season before the NHS catch up. To not be testing/isolating people with pneumonia who have had close contact with people from affected areas because it 'isnt in guidance' makes this almost inevitable. They are now saying this happened in Italy too. I suspect either we are already into a few weeks of unfound circulation, or if not we are going into it now.

I agree OP. My extremely fit and healthy, marathon running colleague has just recovered from pneumonia that developed over Christmas. She is baffled.

I also had a very odd flu over Chrismas - unheard of for me, as I have the constitution of an ox. It started like ants crawling in my chest and cycled through all the flu symptoms, unable to get out of bed, hot-cold sweats and chest feeling bruised in specific areas. Very strange.

My understanding is that 40-60% of us will get this strain of coronavirus but there will be a bell curve of effects with many people at one extreme with no/few symptoms to the other extreme where susceptible people and the elderly are most at risk.

My daughter and my niece had it in the space of a few weeks of each other