I'm worried I may have asymptomatic flu. Where can I get a test?

[Treesofwood]

Just that really. Flu can be very dangerous and can lead to ME. I would hate to unknowingly pass it on.

@Treesofwood

The fact is we could have prevented flu transmission every year, and therefore saved lives by testing testing testing, practising social distancing and masking our children. Especially 2017/2018 which was a very high death rate year. Lots of asymptomatic flu carriers. Why didn't we? And before anyone mentions the vaccine,these deaths happened with it. It's a bit of a guessing game and in some years almost totally ineffective.

Even though flu is a extremely severe virus, particularly for vulnerable groups, it simply isn't as virulent as COVID.

I'm at increased risk from flu so I get vaccinated every year, I'm also at increased risk from COVID, guess what....

And the majority of people dying atm of 'flu' are not dying from a contagious transmitted flu.

Influenza B is particularly dangerous for children. The flu vaccine is a bit of a guessing game and unreliable even in those who have it. We could have saved lives by testing, following SD, masking in the past. Who knows how many, but thousands. For sure. Why didn't we/don't we do that? Flu has asymptomatic spreaders. There is no doubt about that. It lands people in hospital on ventilators. It leads to long lasting illness. And sadly it often develops into pneumonia and kills people.

I get you OP.
There were more excess deaths from flu in 2017/18 than we’ve had from corona virus this year.
Yes it barely made the headlines.
There was no shutting down, no testing , no isolation. People just died.
Why is that?

Morfin, point is people have been dying of flu for years. That's lots of avoidable deaths.

In the US your gp can get a nasal swab and test you for influenza A and B with results in about 10 minutes.

In Australia 2017 the hospitals were almost overwhelmed. Thousand of people died. 123 people died in Victoria of Covid with an average age of 81 and a State of Disaster is announced. People are assaulted by police officers for not carrying ID and all locked in their houses. But transmitting asymptomatic flu was fine. Their flu season preceded ours and Americas . So they also allowed people to travel with it. Unless it can fly on its own.

Xtinak that fast? Then why have we not done that here??

I think this study changed the way we look at things re flu www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/three-quarters-of-people-with-flu-have-no-symptoms/

@Treesofwood you must BE PREPARED STAY SAFE SAVE LIVES.

*As advised by Scottish motorways.

Xtinak interesting. Especially as I am sure we have been told that the difference between covid and flu is that covid can be spread asymptomatically...

@Treesofwood I would guess we don't do it here because of the cost plus it doesn't particularly influence the course of treatment, whereas there it's something they can charge for. They are much bigger on testing in general (although this obviously didn't work out for covid) but if you go to the doctor with a sore throat they will swab you for strep etc. as a matter of course ime.

I see what you are saying.

However, I've never seen scenes like those in the Italian hospitals and in China. Care homes and residents have not been abandoned because of normal flu.

My neice worked near a Covid ward and said it was distressing, the staff were struggling and she thought they'd have ptsd.

Why do you think that was?

This silly facetious nonsense helps no-one and is certainly not clever.

Agreed. It's tedious.

Picklemewalnuts It's a very traumatic place to work. ICU nurses are known to have a significantly higher risk of Ptsd than general nurses at all times. And of course at the peak there were a lot of very sick people with Covid. I hope all the staff involved get the support they need as we come out of this.
The scenes in Italy were also shown as an ICU in America. I don't trust any of the information or images that came out of China. The government chose to use the media to increase our sense of personal threat. Who knows what that meant in practise.

I could have asymptomatic flu

Allegedly. But no, you really couldn't Despite all the protestations to the contrary on here, flu is a serious illness which makes you feel really ill.

I never understand the people on here who said "I had flu without symptoms" - well how on earth do you know you had flu then?

Apparently 75% of people with flu have no symptoms.

Well, I think if we go down the route of not believing anything we haven't seen with our own eyes, it's going to get hard to function.

I'm good at seeing bias, statistical deceit (this weekend it will be hotter than Egypt), media tricks etc. I'm not buying in to catastrophising for political gain (our figures are the worst in Europe, Boris must hang).

However unless the world is suffering under an episode of mass hysteria (can't remember the current less misogynistic word) then this pandemic is happening and steps need to be taken to manage it.

I'm optimistic that the research underway will give is better information and better treatments/vaccines soon. I'm not blind to the damage shutting down hospitals did for people receiving regular pain or cancer treatments.

There may need to be lasting measures- masks in winter/confined spaces etc. If children in tropical countries can do it, I'm sure we can too. The Chinese students at my son's uni have always worn masks most of the time. Doesn't seem to inhibit them at all.

I didn’t think asymptomatic flu was a thing 🙄

And do you know what, I've not had a cold since March which is a delight. I always get them badly, feel really rough and end up losing several days.

If we mix less and get fewer colds then I'm not going to complain about it!

Yes, we should. Some countries wear masks in flu season normally. We could adopt this.

Nope

@MadameBlobby

I didn’t think asymptomatic flu was a thing 🙄

It is a thing. Although that doesn’t make the OP right since the difference in response between seasonal flu and COVID has very little to do with whether people can be asymptomatic or not.

www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/cbn/2005/cbnreport_103105.html

This seems like a good time for the annual challenging of the MN myth that if you can function you don’t have flu it’s just a heavy cold. Flu can range anywhere from asymptomatic to being hospitalised/dying from complications.

We would actually take all these measures for a pandemic flu, though. All the government pandemic planning was presuming the next pandemic would probably be flu. The 'Operation Cygnus' pandemic exercise from a couple of years ago that was in the news during lockdown was called that because the fake disease was 'swan flu'. Mass testing, school closures, banning events and limiting socialising, these were all part of pandemic planning for flu.

We don't take these measures for seasonal flu because seasonal flu is less dangerous and less likely to overwhelm health care systems.