Do young healthy people die or flu ?

[cherrytreeblossom]

Anyone know any numbers about how often healthy, young people die of flu or other none corona viruses ?

Sorry that should says OF flu

This PHE report is long but interesting: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/839350/Surveillance_of_influenza_and_other_respiratory_viruses_in_the_UK_2018_to_2019-FINAL.pdf

TL;DR - one of the problems with assessing flu deaths is that for the large part, death certificates don’t record “flu” itself as being the cause of death - what’s usually recorded is the complications which the flu led to, such as pneumonia or lung collapse or cardiac arrest. That’s why we aren’t comparing like for like when we say X number of people died of Corona today: it’s often more correct to say they died with Corona.

But yes - sometimes children and young people do become very ill or die of complications resulting from the flu which they weren’t expected to develop. A colleague of mine (in his forties, good health, average weight, diet, activity etc) died of bacterial pneumonia shortly after contracting flu a couple of years ago, but I doubt he’d be considered to have died of flu in a medical sense.

Similarly, in 2018 I was one of the 289 adults PHE recorded that year as having caught scarlet fever. I was one of the even smaller number who developed rare and unexpected complications as a result - until late last year I was still being treated with antibiotics for endocarditis, which made me very ill. Had I died of it, a medic friend confirmed that it wouldn’t be scarlet fever which was recorded as cause of death, but endocarditis-related complications. It will be similar with flu and Corona.

Yes. For example sadly a 17 year old school girl died whilst on a school trip to New York. She had the flu, which turned into bronchopneumonia and sepsis. (Widely reported in press).

It's rare, and I couldn't tell you if a healthy 17 year old was more or less likely to die from COVID-19.

My friend is an a and e doctor and has seen several healthy young people die from flu in his a and e. Just before christmas there were a healthy mum, 31. I had flu last year and it totally knocked me out
I'm 33 and otherwise very healthy, I run 5 times a week and I felt really truly awful for 5 days with it

yes.

My cousin's wife died of it when she was in her 40s.

I am 41 and in good health and was hospitalised with flu/pneumonia in December, I was very unwell and it was very frightening. It took me weeks to feel fully recovered.

I'm 35 and got really ill with the flu last year, as it developed into pneumonia followed by sepsis. I do have asthma but it's well managed without inhalers, and I'm generally quite fit and healthy and the whole ordeal completely took me by surprise. I think my issue was my body's immune response going OTT hence the sepsis, which could have ended badly. That's why I'm so terrified of getting CV.

Sepsis is a big killer, associated with infections and in fact over half of COVID cases have sepsis...

When my DC were small and one was very ill with pneumonia after a virus, there were many small children in with infections such as bronchiolitis etc, sadly.

I’ve ended up in high dependencey care with flu, pretty much my only adult Illness beyond a mild cold. I was 29, middle of healthy weight range and fit.

I also remember a healthy local father dying some years ago Locally

It does happen, yes.

Also, what people call "the flu" in vernacular is often merely a more severe case of the common cold.

I'm 36 and I've had the flu once in my life as far as I know.

It was miserable and, while I recovered on my own, it took me months to get back into shape. I'd also been hospitalised with pleuritis before. The flu was most definitely quite a lot worse.

My six year old son developed pneumonia in June last year alongside one of his classmates at school. He was/is extremely healthy. So was his classmate. The consultant said it was very unusual for a child his age to be affected in this way.

It really shook me up and has given me a view of what these viruses can do and how quick they can take hold. I now have an oxygen monitor at home, just a small device that fits over the finger and I think it’s a key bit of kit. When he was admitted his oxygen had dipped under 90 and I beat myself up constantly that I didn’t realise sooner how ill he was.

cytokine storm is suppose to have killed many young people in the 2017/8 flu pandemic - either that or overdoses of Aspirin. Cytokine Storm is the body overreaction to an infection -

Yes. When I was 15 one my classmates died of flu.

These child deaths are shocking but they are not the norm.

1700 people have died from this in the UK so far and 2 have been under 20. The vast majority are still over 70 with underlying health issues.

It’s hard not to feel anxious, particularly if you already suffer from anxiety but even if this kills 60,000 people in the UK. It still only represents 0.1% of the UK population.

I honestly had no idea how deadly the flu was. I'm 36, healthy, no underlying problems. I have never had the flu jab, even though offered through work, I will however start having it.

Yes, as people have mentioned, it often manifests itself as sepsis - like the 17 year old who died in New York.

Sepsis is the thing we should be really worried about - especially after all the idiots using anti-bac hand sanitiser against a virus and therefore increasing bacterial resistance to anti-biotics.

And of course in 1918/19 the Spanish flu mainly killed younger people, especially in the second wave.

My six year old son developed pneumonia in June last year

My friend's daughter got it in Australia when she was about 3. I was really surprised, I thought pneumonia was something you got if you were elderly and/or got too cold (confusing it with hyperthermia, clearly) and not in the middle of an Australian summer! I hope your son is completely well now

hypothermia

Interestingly I read yesterday that on average 17000 people die of flu in the UK each year. There was a high of 28000 in 2014/15 but last winter 2018/2019 only 1600 died of flu.

I read from that that there could be potentially 15400 people alive in the UK in 2019/20 who would have normally died from flu (mostly likely due to vulnerabilities). A large proportion of the covid19 victims will be people who would have died from flu anyway. Some may have actually had flu - are they only recording deaths of people who had been tested or all people that had SARS symptoms?

So with the death rate so low last year, even without covid19 we could have expected a very high fatality rate for winter flu related deaths. As high as 32400. So unless the covid19 death rate and the flu death rate combined gets to 32400 + the death rate will not have been exceptionally high.

And of course in 1918/19 the Spanish flu mainly killed younger people, especially in the second wave.

It's my understanding that the Spanish flu turned your own immune system against you. So the weak and elderly were OK. It was the young and strong worst effected. But covid19 is a different virus and does not behave in the same way.

Healthy, young people can die of anything anytime. There are no guarantees in life.

I know tsk people I went to school with who died of leukaemia in their late teens 😢