Covid treatment

[SurvivingNotThriving]

I had an email last week saying that I qualify for treatment if I test positive for covid. (It seems legit - email address checks out, they knew my full name and NHS number.) I'm just confused as to why.

I clicked on the enclosed link, and of the list of qualifying conditions, the only relevant one is cancer. I had cancer a few years ago, but I'm fine now. I do not have cancer any more. The only other 'things' listed on my NHS notes are perimenopause, PCOS, and higher risk drinking, but these weren't mentioned.

So I'm a little confused as to why I qualify. Also nobody I know has mentioned receiving this email so I don't know how common it is. (Yes I do realize that most people don't plaster their medical details all over social media.)

It's all just landed at the forefront of my mind today because I'm coming down with something, and I feel exactly the same as I felt last year when I had covid...

Without wishing to pry into anyone's medical history, does anyone have an opinion on how common these emails are? I'm not particularly worried about covid (fully vaxxed), but I am rather scared of long covid.

Anyone?

I would get MNHQ to move your post to the Covid section as you will probably get more targeted replies from people on there

We have a critically vulnerable person in the family who has had one. But that was ages ago (back in the days when you got a Red Box PCR test to keep in the house just in case)

My guess is that someone has been doing a bit of housekeeping and has misread the dates of your cancer treatment.

(Really pleased you're recovered from that)

To get the treatment you do an LFT and register it on the website as positive (if it is). If you are on the list that should trigger a list with your details on and a call from the medicines unit.
So do an LFT, and if positive I would take the antivirals if offered. But they will go through the pros and cons and why you qualify, and they have to go through the boxes anyway, and you might get filtered out again. I think there is a website where you can register your own positive test now and it will go through the criteria and will tell you if you qualify or not.

Yup I have LFTs and will use them.

What type of cancer did you have? Lymphomas and leukeamias - blood cancers- are on the list of illnesses that mean you are entitled to the antivirals.

Breast.

I’ve recently had the same email. I was contacted about 6 weeks into the lockdown and asked how I was getting on with shielding. I hadn’t been. The woman went spare saying I had been sent a letter telling me to do so. Nope!
Contacted GP. He said I probably should shield. On immunosuppressants and have asthma.

Worth double checking with your doctor, but if you're being offered ant-virals, take them. The qualifying system in Australia is not quite the same, but the vital principle is: as soon as you test positive, ring up for the anti-virals and start asap.

The whole point, or at least in Australia, is to keep vulnerable people out of hospital.
I got in by the skin of my teeth, and my God the antivirals knocked it on the head in no time. I was one of the unfortunate ones who got the Paxlovid mouth - horrible metallic taste, easily concealed by chewing gum.

We're just moving this over to covid for the OP.

Thanks MNHQ!

It just got a bit weirder. The postie delivered a box of LFTs today that I didn't order. Is anyone else in the same situation?

Not complaining AT ALL, by the way. Am happy to test and would be grateful to test if needed.

Me too! I have just got my box of tests. So weird that they have decided I need this now. I’ve had multiple jabs. And covid too.

I'm the other way! I'm valid for treatments but never get LFTs unless ordering them and no emails/letters

I had the same email and couldn't understand why, my partner who has asthma hasn't had one. I can only assume it's because I also had a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment in 2021. At the time my oncologist said that didn't make me more vulnerable to covid and I didn't need to take ay extra precautions...odd

Yes, exactly the same here! Breast cancer treatment in 2020 (surgery and radiotherapy) but fine now!

and the postie has just delivered a box of LFTs!

Snap!

*would be grateful for treatment if needed.

I had paxlovid and it made a big difference to how I felt. Mouth tasted vile though which was a side effect

@SurvivingNotThriving just read this on the Breast Cancer Now website - apparently the guidance was updated in June 2022 to include people who have had breast cancer, whether treatment was radiotherapy or chemo.

Totally get your user name by the way 💐

Ah that's interesting, thx.

Yeah, username accurate. Onwards and upwards, eh?

I got the same too. I am asthmatic with some liver problems which are not being even looked at right now. Partner currently cancer treatment and did not get the same. Confused also

I got the email and box of LFT’s too., a week ago. I wasn’t on any priority list and wasn’t even offered a vaccinate for flu the first year. (We moved to a new area in 2020.)
The only guess I can make is that I had an operation to remove very early lung cancer in 2015. I was checked & had an X-ray for the following 5 years before being discharged.
Perhaps my medical records have been incorrectly coded when summarised at my current Health Centre?