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?

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

This ^

We know 10% of people with covid19 need ITU level care. There were not hundreds/ thousands of people being admitted to ITU in Dec/Jan/Feb. I had the a similar viral illness in mid Feb but unfortunately do not think it was this coronavirus.

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

What I genuinely don't understand is how and why coronavirus is being presented as worse than this sort of flu. Five years ago a friend, her son and I all caught the same flu. We all had post-viral fatigue for three years. He missed months of school, she ended up on antidepressants from the stress and I went down from running my own business to being able to work for about 4 hours a week because I was so permanently shattered. My energy has never fully returned.

If someone had told me that flu was going around and how dangerous it was I'd have happily self-isolated. Given that all flu is extremely dangerous to the elderly and immune-compromised, how is coronavirus different? I read that 13-17k people have died of flu in UK each year recently. Why is there no outcry about that but such panic-mongering about this?

I genuinely don't see the difference. DH keeps saying 'This is worse' but has no facts to base that on.

With global travel as it is and the unusually rapid transmission of this virus
If the Welsh teacher was confirmed as infected in Wuhan in November of course it was here in December.

To think otherwise would be odd.

It's definitely crossed my mind too. In January I struggled for about three weeks with an on/off fever, crashing headache, sore throat, dry cough and painful chest (I remember thinking it was odd because my chest felt chest infectiony but cough was dry).

I guess there's no way to know, but I really hope it was because if we've had it we should have some level of immunity.

I've also been wondering this myself. I ended up in hospital 3 days before Christmas with the onset of pneumonia. For the 2 weeks running up to this I had sudden lethargy and fever on and off, a tickly cough but no other symptoms. Then very suddenly had a very severe, sharp pain in my right lung that made it very difficult to breathe. Had an x ray which confirmed pneumonia.

Looked at the above link for metapnuemovirus (sp?!) definitely not that looking at the symptoms. The drs I saw in hospital all said there was this awful virus going round with lots of cases of pneumonia as a result. Makes me wonder...

I had flu/pneumonia in Dec and was in hospital overnight. It was definitely flu though as I was swabbed and tested positive. Just a nasty flu strain.

No. It's pretty much impossible for it to have been Covid-19. It wasn't here at that point, there's a small possibility that it could have been here a couple of weeks before the first case, but not before then. The reason for this is that it would definitely have been noticed and picked up on when a pattern of more of those who wouldn't normally need hospital measures, or indeed ventilation, was found - this is what happened in Wuhan. The disease also causes quite characteristic changes on X rays and scans.

It hasn't been spreading here for much before the first case. Understand the wishful thinking though.

I had that virus in Jan. Fever, worse body aches I've ever had, awful cough to the point some people with Children shopping at my work moved them away from me, bent over coughing my lungs up constantly. Eyes half shut, then at the end went pink. I've never had actual flu before, don't think it was as bad as flu I've seen in my mum and Granny, but it was worse than any cold I've ever had. When my eyes went pink I called the doc, they said likely adenovirus.

It was in China from November, I can't remember the exact figure but there is a ridiculously high number of people recorded as travelling from Wuhan to other places on the planet; as they didn't declare it and tests didn't begin until this year I dont think it's wildly out of the question.

That sort of bug does the rounds every year, so I wouldn't think of it as being likely to be covid-19.

And as for wishful thinking about having had it and now being immune, there's no evidence for assuming that would be the case.
Independent article about getting C-19 twice

My mum says exactly the same OP.
Shes been so poorly November - Feb.
Cough, fevers, shortness of breath, Coughing blood from Coughing so much.
She was told she had bronchiolitis... Loads of antibiotics.
We've been around her and haven't caught it, so who knows!

It's possible I guess.

there are viruses with these sorts of symptoms circulating every year. I had a really bad one winter 2018/2019 which caused me respiratory issues for months.

I do think though that cv might have been more widespread in the UK than people originally realised but I don't think it was circulating here at Christmas.

I had the same thing. Crippling flu, terrible shortness of breath and cough. My partner, who I coughed all over all night for about a week managed to not get it. Wishful thinking that's its all done and dusted I'm afraid.

LaCherriesJubilee Mon 16-Mar-20 14:21:07
Could it have been Covid-19?

If it was Covid-19, many others would have got it, the A&Es would be heavinf and the country would be littered with dead bodies at this stage.

No.

There are always viruses. I had a flu like virus last March and I was off sick for two weeks. In May I had a chest infection requiring antibiotics and steroids. They were not Coronavirus.

I asked this yesterday on a thread as well.
I had it too, dh brought it in from a colleague (Who came back from Australia with it) then I passed to my colleagues too despite attempting to be careful.
I agree it was awful.
I have had a telephone GP appt this afternoon and once done I asked the GP this very question and also would there be antibodies present if they tested my blood now?
She had to be quick but her answer was - YES it is entirely possible that it was here before we were all made aware but proving it is a different matter. They wont test peoples blood now to see if they could check because if found to be true then that could have an adverse effect on the advice we're being given now - wash hands very often etc... people could stop doing that and the risk will increase.
She said there was a nasty virus kicking about at the end of the year that some patients tested positive for but others did not with similar symptoms.
I keep joking with colleagues and my Dh that we've all had it but obviously I'm being careful and sensible as well.

I think it's maybe been about since Jan/Feb. Not sure if it was before then as I think UK hospitals would have seen an upsurge in deaths and reported that.

@PeninsulaPanic agree. I think at the end of whatever it was I and DH had, it was either the end of the virus that petered out - or as you mention, a post viral bacterial infection that then responded to antibiotics and we got better. DH is never ill and he felt as like death warmed up. Whatever it was it was pretty hideous.

I wonder how long it took for the Chinese authorities to test those people who worked in the market in Wuhan who were coughing and found that it was a new virus and not something that had been around for years. I'm guessing it took a long time, and that therefore Covid 19 is not as new as we think.

It is possible that this has been here from around nov or so, after all it didnt just start up one day!.

And with the numbers being very low and no one suspecting it quite possible.

Look at this this way over time.

1 person passes it to two they pass it to two more and so on it takes a while thne its an exponential progression or curve .

My 80 yearly very fit mum had the same type of flu described here over Christmas.She is never ill but she thought she was dying .I think it has been around a lot longer also.

Surely if it had been Covid 19 back then, we would be into a peak by now and people would be dying from it in huge numbers?

I've been wondering this ever since Covid hit the news. Came down with the worst flu of my life just after Christmas, took well over a month to start to feel normal again, when it first hit I literally couldn't move for 3 days. Normally I brush off the seasonal lurgies pretty quickly, and the last time I was actually incapacitated by one I was about 6 or 7 (40s now). Didn't get tested for pneumonia, and I work from home so I basically just slept whenever I wasn't working, but needed strong flu meds to control the coughing enough to get any sleep and was coughing so hard it was making me vomit (or try to, no appetite so nothing but liquid to come up).

I was asking this in late January, when I was starting to feel human enough to read the news again. Lots and lots of people traveling back and forth from China in my area.

It does seem unlikely but two of us had a similar thing in our household the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. It was like nothing I had before and I've had proper flu. I remember commenting on the sore throat coming and going, and the the cough being dry and unproductive. I was really fatigued and had shortness of breath on breathing in. Symptoms got better then came back intermittently for over two weeks. I got to the point of thinking about making a doctor's appointment in case I had a chest infection but left it another week to see if it went and it did. I do remember waking up in the night coughing and feeling like I was choking on mucous. Two other family members got the sore throat, cough and tiredness but to a much lesser degree.

My children's school have Chinese students who'd have returned early January... so not completely unfeasible but it doesn't add up with the stats. It does show there have been recent viruses with similar symptoms which would explain the many cases of those testing negative for Coronavirus a week or two ago. But if those are still circulating, how are people going to know what they've had without testing. It would be awful for people to assume they've had it and put themselves back into crowded spaces.