Are people who are vulnerable to CV also vulnerable to other viruses and flu?

[Marcellemouse]

Would the same people who were shielding initially for CV also be likely to be at risk with other viruses such as flu? Or is there something about CV that makes these people more susceptible?

Yes, that’s why they get offered a flu vaccine 🤔

Yup I've been hospitalised with what I thought at the time was flu. But turned out to be pneumonia

My son was shielding due to having a weakened immune system. He is more susceptible to flu so he has a flu jab each year. He also picks up a lot of other bugs. Most people who were shielding would probably experience the same thing.

Would flu be considered as risky as CV?

@Marcellemouse

Would flu be considered as risky as CV?

No because there is a vaccine.

@Marcellemouse

Would flu be considered as risky as CV?

No. As it is a novel virus, which is more contagious than flu and kills more people.

Would flu be considered as risky as CV?

As a general answer, no.

But for specific people, flu is a huge threat. For example, someone with reduced lung capacity.

However, Covid is a risk to eg those who are significantly overweight, in a way flu isn't.

The challenge is that if you were someone affected by another virus and therefore compromised in some way, you'd be at serious risk if you contracted Covid.

One thing I was wondering is whether how you tend to respond to viruses reflects how you may respond to COVID?

Sometimes when a normal winter virus is circulating some are mildly affected whilst others get it more seriously. Some get it "on their chest" with a really chesty cough, others get more sinus symptoms, others just get a mild headache.

I have an underlying health condition so I get a free flu jab. I have been very fortunate to have never had the flu and when I get viruses they tend to always be mild colds. In the last 10 years I don't think I have ever had once had a fever.

@autumnals

It's an interesting question.

In general you'd think that's true.

But Covid seems to have torn up the tile book & not enough research is available yet.

There are many cases of otherwise well people who got Covid, some severely, some mildly but have beeb left with very significant post-viral symptoms. This is unusual. And it's only becoming apparent about now. For example, in a post-Covid clinic being run in Cork (Ireland) they are reporting seeing people who thought they'd recovered well from Covid but appear to have regressed in terms of energy, fatigue etc, many months on.

*rule book! Not tile book

I wonder this. I pay for a flu jab every year as I had a run of getting it yearly and it wrecked my winter , I was so ill and took ages to recover. When I became a single parent I decided to have yearly jabs. I am lucky enough to have no reason to worry particularly about covid but I do wonder how ill it would make me.

It’s true up to a point for me

I live with leukaemia, which is very well controlled by drugs, and it’s quite likely that I am no more likely to catch something than the next person

But if I get something that causes symptoms, I have to ring in (or just go to A&E) as I am extremely high risk for neutropenic sepsis, and they will assess and do bloods (but probably give me IV ABs anyhow) - even if possibly Covid, I would be admitted under the haematology route.

I have flu jab as soon as it comes out, and have had both the term meningitis jab and the over65s pneumonia jab. I can never have a live vaccine again, and my DC get the flu jab, not the sniff as it sheds - not a risk for most people, but with a very wonky immune system I mustn’t be exposed to it in household level of contact

I know one person with leukaemia who died from a common cold

So yes it’s a worry always. But the background level of risk in ‘normal’ years is pale compared to a novel virus in pretty free circulation.

If I got it badly enough to need hospital (and blood cancer patients are admitted more readily than many others), 36% of us die. And the %age who have other serious but non-lethal complications is also several times higher than the general population

Women my age with blood cancers are one of the most over-represented groups for Covid ICU admissions

@tootyfruitypickle

Although there's no way of knowing, I think it would be sensible to take what precautions you can (within reason!) against getting it.

Minimise contacts, practise good hygiene, wear a mask & physically distance, wfh where possible.

@iVampire I had different cancer many moons ago. I think very frequently about how this must be for people living with cancer , as if that wasn’t enough already. Will you be able to have a vaccine, when one comes ?

@tootyfruitypickle - glad you are well
now!

Vaccine: no-one knows for sure yes, but it’s looking fairly promising, according to Blood Cancer UK.

Using an attenuated adenovirus as a carrier might be risky (we are normally advised never to have any live attenuated vaccine) but its not yet been ruled out. And as other helpful posters have pointed out on other threads, other candidate vaccines are using a wholly different approach and they may well be safe

But even if we can’t have a vaccine ourselves, we’d benefit from the herd provided uptake is >60%

That’s good so at some point a vaccine should come that is safe for you? I hope when it comes to it there is some good messaging about how crucial it is that healthy people get vaccinated to protect those that can’t.

Influenza has killed more in 2020 than Covid has

@1940s

Influenza has killed more in 2020 than Covid has

That is a total lie. Stop spreading nonsense.

fullfact.org/health/flu-covid-deaths/

What @iVampire said
I'm neutropenic so it's the stuff like pneumonia that's not great because I can't fight infections and risk neutropenic sepsis (I don't have cancer)
I've have my flu jab, have had my pneumonia one and have to be careful with stuff like a simple UTI/chest infection. I also have antibiotics before the dentist

The flu vaccine is on average only 40% effective though so presumably people don't think so much about the fact that they are actually not necessarily protected against the flu. Obviously a vaccine that offers some protection to some people is better than nothing but people vulnerable to the flu are frequently still vulnerable even if they've had the jab.

“ No because there is a vaccine.”

Flu vaccine is not 100% accurate. It’s what they think the flu will be like so they try protecting you from it but it might be a different one.

That said , it does help reducing the spread but yet thousands every year die from the flu and they’re mostly vulnerable people.

Yes. I've been hospitalized when I've caught what are minor stomach bugs for regular people. I'm now getting to the point having run out of treatment options if that happened again I could well lose my colon to something that would last a maximum 48 hrs for most people. I get the flu jab but honestly covid Is the least of my concerns of things I could catch

@QueenOllie

What *@iVampire* said I'm neutropenic so it's the stuff like pneumonia that's not great because I can't fight infections and risk neutropenic sepsis (I don't have cancer) I've have my flu jab, have had my pneumonia one and have to be careful with stuff like a simple UTI/chest infection. I also have antibiotics before the dentist

@QueenOllie i'm neutropenic too and the duty dr at my surgery had just refused me my blood results for this week (which j have to get to monitor it due to the drugs I take which is causing it ). If they had gone low I wasn't supposed to take it last night but I also can't be late taking it so I'm now really upset because I've had to take a potentially serious risk because the duty dr wouldnt do what my GP (one of the partners) had instructed me to do which was get the results from the on call Dr yesterday (and she wasn't in yesterday for me to talk to).

I'm a key worker in multiple sen schools and now I'm worried that I've just taken something and have put myself at more risk when I should have been told my results.

Sorry -- I've just been really upset (crying outside the drs yesterday because they refused to help) and then I saw you're neutropenic too so I thought you would maybe understand why I'm so worried right now.

I'm less worried about covid (although I mean I'd rather not get it ) but as I said above stuff like D&v because I could end up losing my colon if I got it.

'Would flu be considered as risky as CV?'
Flu season varies from year to year. Nearly 29 000 people died of flu in England alone 2014-2015 and that's with a vaccine. A friend I worked with in his early 60s died after contracting flu.

Covid is as much a vascular condition as it is respiratory, so a lot of people wouldn't be under threat from the flu as they would Covid. I've got a lymph node condition, no other viruses are a threat to me. I have friends from Africa who have asthma and hepatitis, other viruses aren't a threat. They've lived through malaria, Scarlett fever etc.

For people who have reduced liver/kidney function other viruses may not be a threat, this is.

Covid attacks the body in ways we haven't seen before. The lungs, the vascular system, internal organs and the brain. These aren't possible complications, this is how Covid presents.

It is the novel aspect and the way it hides the damage it is doing. The patients oxygen levels can look ok and we can sit up and talk, move around but our lungs and other systems can be dangerously damaged. The doctors had never seen that before. That's why we had lots of deaths and Germany didn't. We didn't give oxygen/blood thinning support early enough. We are better placed this time around, because we understand more, but we need the hospital capacity to deal with it.