Doctor says DS (7) probably had CV in December

[Freetodowhatiwant]

Just that really, fascinating if we could find out. DS, 7, had a cough like I’ve never seen before at Christmas in Spain. I’ve been to hospital about 15 times with both of my children, more often the younger one, when they’ve had croup or a viral wheeze so I’m very used to what these sound like. The cough ds has at Christmas saw him coughing for weeks and weeks but at the peak had him non stop for 5 whole hours without any break. By 2am that morning when nothing was stopping him coughing I went to the chemist to get some steroids as I know this is what we are often given in hospital for croup but I knew there was no croup or viral wheeze, just this constant dry cough. As it was by the time I got back from the chemist he had finally stopped coughing enough to sleep and they next day at the clinic they gave him inhalers which he needed for a good few weeks afterwards.

Anyway I had a call today from his younger sibling’s asthma doctor and although I was pleased to report the 5yo has not had to use an inhaler for months and months I said it was funny as DS had had to have one. She asked for details about this and said it sounded like he had had Covid back in December, especially given we were in spain.

Who knows! Would BA interesting to get him an antibody test but as far as I’m aware they are expensive and not always accurate.

I'm pretty sure I had it in December too.

I developed a high temperature and exhaustion like nothing I'd ever seen before. Then came the cough. I had fits of 3odd hours non-stop coughing. The breathlessness walking from my bed to the bathroom was incredible.
Spoke to the GP because I felt too unwell to get out of bed. Wanted me to go in anyway.
Had blood tests (which Dr was baffled by)
Chest sounded clear but he could tell I was unwell and the breathlessness was terrifying.
Lost my sense of taste and smell too.

It took 4 lots of antibiotics, 2 courses of steroids and 2 inhalers (which I have never needed before, no asthma) before I started to feel normal again.
I've still got the bone heavy tiredness every now and then and periodically need the inhalers.

@confusedandtired99 it presumably didnt shift because it was viral? I dont understand why the GP was confused, flu can cause pneumonia - it doesnt mean it was corona

Are the tests that you can buy reliable or not?

I'm really very interested now. I'd happily spend the money to find out.

My DS1 was horribly ill in January. Very high fever and dreadful cough. He was swabbed for influenza but negative. He was sick and weak for 3 weeks and coughed for another 3..... We suspect he had it.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/no-antibodies-could-still-have-had-covid-fighting-t-cells/amp/

@ActuallyItsEugene this is a good artivlcle about the reliability of tests

My Dd1 was ill when she was home for Christmas, exhausted and terrible cough. She stayed mostly in her room, so wasn't out shopping, Carol singing, socialising. The cough was really bad, she was exhausted.
In December she had a weekend away, at a Christmas Market in Germany. She works in health care, a lot of people she sees have respiratory problems. She had visited an elderly relation who ended up in hospital with a chest infection.
She had a nasty illness, but no way of knowing what!

Was ill all November since Rome

Whatever earlier deaths were logged as, there could only have been a few COVID deaths,
because deaths last winter were lower than for the the last few winters

Safe to say from all these responses it's been around a lot longer. I don't see why some people are so quick to jump on the conspiracy theory bandwagon.. the evidence is obvious. I work in a school and we had around 17% absence last week of Jan; first week of Feb. Lots of comments from parents re high temps that wouldn't come down, terrible cough etc.

I think currently it is safe to say there was a nasty illness late 2019/early 2020. But beyond that is speculation.

No in February you couldn't have a test if you had symptoms. Even in the second week of March you couldn't.

You absolutely could, because I had one on 10 March.

Normal people couldn't easily. I had symptoms 17th March and rang the numbers etc. Only way locally to get tested was on admission to hospital at that stage. (Or presumably nhs workers or somesuch!?)

Not an NHS worker; just someone who had had potential contact with a confirmed case (I say potential because obviously due to confidentiality I didn't know the precise identity of the patient, just that they worked for another organisation in my building which has some enclosed communal areas, so couldn't be definitively sure one way or the other as to the level of exposure). When I developed symptoms I rang NHS111, explained the situation, and was told to report to the testing pod at my local hospital the following day. Roughly 48 hours after that I was called and told my test was negative, and received confirmation in writing shortly after that which is why I am so sure of the date of my test, as it's referenced in my results letter.

It was very shortly after that, less than a week IIRC, that they stopped any form of community testing for several weeks, but from mid-Feb to mid-March you could get tested if you'd travelled back from one of the then-Covid hotspots (e.g. Northern Italy) or had contact with a confirmed case.

We need to remember that back in Feb they would only test you if you had been to one of the affected areas. Ridiculous now as there would have been a high level of community spread then.

The first case of people dying were people with no travel links. Therefore they would have picked it up on the community weeks before.

But most people on the thread had several symptoms of something horrible, but no test was available, because there was no covid19.

@Jrobhatch29 Thank you. I'll have a read through.

The earliest one could be traced back to the beginning of February, but it is possible there were cases even earlier that could not be picked up by the analysis.

www.bbc.com/news/health-52993734

“New coronavirus spread swiftly around world from late 2019, study finds”

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN22I1FQ

I was ill late Dec for nearly six weeks. Coughing, shortness of breath, fatigue, aches and pains etc. Doctor said I must have had a bad virus! Ds also had for 2 weeks, he got ill first, then Dp had it last for 5 days. Roll on to March and I get ill again from 12th. Chest pain, hot chest and back, shortness of breath, diarrhea, sore throat, fatigue, aches and pains and body buzzing/fizzing.

I am starting to worry that if I picked it up twice, I could easily get it again. I am nowhere near recovered from the second bout.

t.co/9OlhZ6Rx6R You will probably need Google translate, but apparently Italy have found COVID-19 traces in water samples from December 2019.

As the OP I don't have much more to add but have been reading all these with interest! It would be good to get DS an antibody test but they are expensive and who knows if they are accurate.

There now seems to be evidence of virus in waste water samples taken in December in Milan and other parts of Italy.

I am even more convinced that DS has had it now as he had conjunctivitis as well as the pneumonia!!

It's not really conspiracy theory to think that a highly infectious virus confirmed in China in October/November was circulating through Europe at a similar time - think of the thousands of air passengers between China and Europe. It's common sense rather than conspiracy. It's ludicrous to think it would take 3 months to reach Europe

^This. I was told I couldn't possibly have COVID-19 when I became ill on 21st Feb with a temperature of 38 plus for 12 days, as we hadn't been overseas and hadn't had contact with a confirmed case'. Then my DD2 8) picked up a viral illness on 4th March, with high temperature, chest pain and bad headache. I therefore assumed I must have had a different infection previously when my symptoms returned with a vengeance and I've been ill ever since.

But it's clear that COVID-19 is rarely passed from children to adults. And we could easily have caught it in the same place, at a gymnastics holiday club for people all over Leeds. The lounge where the kids were handed over was very stuffy and airless. Or I could have passed it to DD2.

I didn't work this out until recently, because I didn't see how I could have caught it so early in the year. But it wasn't early at all from what we've learned about it now.

And why is there such a vested interest in proving that COVID-19 wasn't around in the UK earlier? It doesn't make any sense.

My dd2 had conjunctivitis and pneumonia (double pneumonia as she adds) 21 years ago, and was hospitalised with 'a virus'. She was tested for cystic fibrosis at that point (negative). There were several ill toddlers in with a variety of symptoms.
But... my dd1 was really ill at Christmas. So logically I know viruses can be rotten but I'd love to know what virus she had.