That illness a lot of us had November-January...

[LaCherriesJubilee]

Could it have been Covid-19?

I keep seeing lone posts about this but no thread.

I became ill with a cough/chest infection thing in early December which wrecked my health all month. I remember feeling miserable over Christmas/New Year. I kept waking up coughing. I found it hard to catch my my breath just walking upstairs. It took over two months for the cough to go away. Interestingly neither of my DC caught it/were affected apart from the older saying she felt a bit "blah" for a few days.

So is it a possibility it's been here longer than we think and many of us have already had it and recovered without realizing? Or the other option which is that it was just one of the several viral things that go around every winter and not CV at all?

I started a thread about this earlier.
I had an illness beginning of January which started with a dry tickly cough.
Then lots of other things

I was really not well at all.

The only thing giving me pause for thought is that my DC's were relatively unaffected when they were around me most of the time and we usually all catch each others illnesses. And speaking to my friend (who I think I caught it from) she said her DC's didn't seem ill either, it was just she and her DH feeling like death. Both of us were relived we could get on with being ill without worrying about the kids. That's the only unusual factor for me.

*relieved

A relative had flu at the end of October. However it got really bad and they were taken in to hospital with suspected sepsis which actually turned out to be pneumonia, thought they weren't going to make it at one stage.

Finally went home but within a couple of weeks it came back and they were back in hospital. Tests had shown an infection but no-one said what it was.

We wondered when we saw the news ...

The ward was full of people with similar problems and not all of them survived. It is possible, we think.

Unless you were in Wuhan in November or Dec, it's much much more likely to have been a bad cold or flu. Even now that Covid 19 has spread to Europe, it still would be.

DH and I had the same back in January.

Unfortunately I am now sick again with similar symptoms. Cough, shortness of breath/tight chest and fever.

Ooooo I had a thing in January where I absolutely smashed a blue inhaler in in 2 weeks, a horrible asthma cough when I I don't usually get a cough and felt 'off' for a fortnight.

Really hope that was mine.

Thing is we probably got it before it was noticed in Italy. We have a lot of international students from China. It's really not beyond the realms of possibility that it has been here a while. And that seasonal deaths are so frequent (think of our aging population and how often sadly 1 will die each day).

We've had 30 reported deaths in what, a month? Would 30 even register in that age group of vulnerable people?

OP a Welsh teacher in Wuhan got it in November - can't remember his name offhand but if you googled Welsh teacher Wuhan corona virus you'd find it

We've had 30 reported deaths in what, a month? Would 30 even register in that age group of vulnerable people?

You put that point much better than me, @Frouby!! I firmly believe this is the case, and since I trust myself more than I trust this medicine show of a government, I'll contend that I'm entitled to my own beliefs as long as I don't knowingly harm others

I wondered that too earlier. The thing is, the data is quite clear now. When covid-19 hits, we see a spike in deaths of the elderly. Italy saw this last week. That is your clearest (delayed) indicator of covid-19. We, even today have not seen that spike. Week after next, when the hospitals are rammed with dying elderly people you will see the unmistakable signs of covid-19

Perhaps there is a possibility that this thing had been going around for some time, and the Chinese only told us when it could no longer be contained and they realised they had to.

In years gone by, in 'closed' countries, this type of thing may have happened before but we never got to hear of it, because they managed to contain it internally and the disease never crossed their borders.

I had it for 2 months from Xmas day. My friends I see most days brought it back from South Africa, there were Chinese people in the safari place they visited

I had cough, chest infection, bad headaches, etc

We think we had the virus

Of course stress and anxiety weaken immune systems.
The term is dis ease / being ill at ease = disease.
HTH.

It is possibly wishful thinking, but it has crossed my mind too. I think it is perfectly possible that Covid 19 left Wuhan and entered this and other countries far earlier than anyone is admitting. We just don't know.

I had a nasty virus which waxed and waned between about mid December and late January when it finally fizzled out. The symptoms of fever and a usually dry cough, shortness of breath, headaches and other aches and pains were strikingly similar to those that the government is using to describe Covid 19.

We will probably never know, of course. But we can wonder about it. Nothing would really surprise me. I don't think the timing is too far out for it if the first recorded Wuhan cases were mid November. Those were the first recorded cases. That doesn't mean necessarily that they were actually the first cases.

My husband had that same virus. he coughed and coughed for about 6-8 weeks. I don't remember anything like it. The rest of us had two days of temperature and headaches then it was over. But he was really ill with it.

I have thought this too OP. DF, DH and I had this in Dec/January - shortness of breath, felt absolutely dreadful for ages, dry cough and fever - same symptoms. Does seem to be a strange coincidence if it's not the same. Both DH and I got antibiotics but towards the end of it, so could be that if it was a/ the virus that it was on it's way out anyway at that point.

I live in the Middle East and had exactly the same thing! I've asked my husband at least 4 times, what de he think? I wasn't tested at the time. Our youngest (9) was off school for 3 days (our kids are never sick!) but it didn't effect our 12 yr old nor m husband. I've never, ever been so ill. All the symptoms...?

Sorry, a few spelling mistakes. In the wine (we're 3hrs ahead of the UK so no judging 🤣)

Ds had an horrific chest infection in December, 3 courses of antibiotics & steroids, he still has a bit of a cough now, I had the chest infection 3 weeks ago, got better after antibiotics but am coughing again now. It does make you wonder if we all had the first strains of Covid-19 as nearly everyone who I have spoken to has had this.

I fell ill on 25th November after a night out in a restaurant.
I had a fever, dry cough and respiratory distress throughout all of December and January.
2 lots of antibiotics later, and I'm still not sure that I am fully shot of it.
I do wonder.

I know a few people who are saying the same. We will never know I guess.

No it was likely metapneumovirus. There was a lot of it circulating. Horrible bug.
CV was not circulating then.

I was saying the same to someone this morning. Something was definitely doing the rounds and even the people I know that religiously have the flu vaccine every year ended up getting it too.
I found it odd at the time that so many people were getting ill with it yet no mention of it anywhere.

My mum was hospitalised in December with pneumonia after her temperature soared and she had to be given oxygen to breathe. She was thinking the same thing!

@TheGlitterFairy, the end of your post raises a really important point. By the end of my second bout I'd developed a bacterial chest infection as a result of the virus (whatever it was), and took antibiotics which saw it off. We're being told that antibiotics won't help and yet if many people get post-viral bacterial infections, how will they be treated if the health service is as overwhelmed as we're being warned (in no uncertain terms) it will be? What if some of us have been 'lucky enough' to get it before this concerted campaign to frighten the whole world into panicking over its imminence, causing even GPs to practically shut up shop for the foreseeable future? Antibiotics have been increasingly rationed in the last decade and the medical profession has been taking the line that their efficacy has been weakened through misuse and/or overuse. The current ramping up of tension about the coronavirus will only harden that attitude even more, and yet post-viral interventions with antibiotics may well make all the difference to some sufferers trying to recover, if it's recognised that they need them.

I truly hope my cynicism is misjudged