Flu admissions surge by 70 percent

[thumpe100]

I would advise anyone who hasn't had a jab, PLEASE do so.

I got my jab back in October, as they give it out free as I work in education.

Last weekend after attending a flurry of kids birthday parties, and events I came down with flu. Friday I came home from work and felt wiped out, Sat it started.

All the classic flu symptoms, aches, runny nose and cough, headaches, I called my GP and got a telephone consulation, she explained the vaccine should mean I have a milder version if its flu.

Today is the first day I feel like getting out bed, that I can even read or watch TV, the last 5 days have been a blur, partner has it now and flat out ( no vaccine).

Just to warn people, the strain around at the moment is HORRIBLE, I wouldn't wish it on anyone, and I was vaccinated.

If you're under 65 , or you don't have any underlined health conditions it still horrificly bad, if what I've experienced this week is the " mild version " , due to being jabbed !!!

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/tidal-wave-of-flu-hits-hospitals-in-england-as-admissions-surge-by-70-per-cent/

I'd have said the same last week....

I certainly hope I haven't tempted fate 😅

I’ve never had the flu but still have the jab to protect myself against it.

Flu vaccine is for everyone - but you have to pay if you're not vulnerable.

I had flu when I had a 4 month old. My mum had to move in for two weeks as my DH had it too. Due to lack of rest/disturbed sleep due to night feeds it took me about 12 weeks to get back to normal.

Never again. I will always get jabbed now

The vaccine isn't an 100 per cent fail safe. Sometimes the guess the dominant strain incorrectly. It won't do you any harm, but sometimes you'll still get the flu. Better to have it than not - especially if it's free

Anyone can pay for one at any chemist. It's about £20. I paid for mine in October

not being funny OP @thumpe100 but why did you call your GP about flu symptoms? What did you think they’d say?

I've been a teacher got 24 years and never been offered a free flu jab apart from when I was pregnant in 2009 and that was from my midwife nothing to do with work.

Can I ask why you called the GP?

DH and I are both over 60. We were really surprised to discover that a flu jab is not now offered to over 60s in our very crowded London borough. When did this change? I'm fairly sure over 50s were offered it previously. So when DH (60) enquired this year he was told he couldn't have it on the NHS.

@User364837 I called for my DS14 who had a positive Flu test and a fever that still hadn't broken after 5 days. I expected to be laughed at when I rang, but in fact I was asked to bring him in urgently to check for secondary infections. Their biggest fear being pneumonia or meningitis. As it stands he did have a chest infection which needed antibiotics and the GP was very glad that he'd seen my DS.
We did have to go into the surgery via another entrance/fire exit and we had to be masked up.

Meanwhile I've had the flu jab every year for years (work in the NHS), and haven't had flu since I was a child, so the jabs are working for me.

The OP already answered that, she felt so bad she thought it was something other than flu.

I had a voucher for flu jab from work but I've had appointments at two places cancelled now because they are running short of vaccines. So I think I will give it a miss as other people need the vaccine much more than me. I've only had the vaccine twice in my life and not sure I've ever actually had flu.

I was a bit meh about the flu jab until I got flu. Crawling to the bog, puking into a bucket and asking for death made me scared not to get it. Awful experience. Religious now.

How do you know it’s the flu - and not say - RSV or Covid?

Didn't ever in my academy. No flu jabs for us, in England

DS (7) is currently on Day 4 of a nasty virus - coughing, zero energy, no appetite. He’s normally bouncing off the walls and rarely asleep much before 9pm but this week he’s been out like a light by 7.30pm and spending all day on the sofa. Several in his class are down with the same thing, so sounds like they may all have flu.

I actually agree with you. I am generally pro vax but not the flu vax.

The evidence for the vaccine's usefulness is very weak. This review is informative. https://community.cochrane.org/news/why-have-three-long-running-cochrane-reviews-influenza-vaccines-been-stabilised

Some quotes from it below:

1. 71 healthy adults need to be vaccinated to prevent one of them experiencing influenza. This weak effect cannot be explained simply by the mismatch of vaccine antigens with wild virus ones

2. There is little evidence on prevention of complications, transmission, or time off work

3. In 115 participants, those who received trivalent influenza vaccines had higher risk of acute respiratory infection associated with confirmed non-influenza respiratory virus infection compared to placebo recipients

This article also states that "it appeared that multiply vaccinated subjects were actually more likely to develop influenza than unvaccinated subjects" https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5853256/

There's plenty more to read out there.

I don't get the vaccine anymore because I had it three years running and was incapacitated in bed for a week every time. The first time I assumed it was a coincidence but after three years of feeling horrendous I conclude that the vaccine disagrees with me.

This is the first year we've not had our flu vaccine. I used to have it done at the local surgery but its now offered at a 'hub' two towns away which is not easily accessible without a car which we don't have.

DC missed the vaccine day at school and there's no catch-up, no option to go the the surgery, and pharmacies here never have appointments for children despite advertising this service.

So it looks like we'll join the flu stats this year.

I paid for the flu jab but have still had what I think is flu (tested negative for COVID). I think I read on the bbc website that there is a different/new strain that is not targeted by the current vaccine. I also struggle a bit with the “well it would have been worse if you haven’t have had the vaccine” because it’s a hypothesis that can never really be tested. I think the vaccines are not 100%? Depends what strains are circulating and which ones the current vaccine targets.

That’s not a medical review - can’t see either the size of the data field

It's a summary of three Cochrane reviews which are linked in the text if you want the full analysis. The three are listed individually here

https://www.cochrane.org/news/featured-review-three-updated-cochrane-reviews-assessing-effectiveness-influenza-vaccines

The article referred to by the NLM link I mentioned is here https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/215/7/1059/2979766

@thumpe100 It's possible you had a flu strain that wasn't covered by the vaccine you had. You know the flu jab contains strains that are predicted to be the main ones in the year ahead? These may not be 100% accurate, some years the vaccine covers the current strains better than other years. So it's possible this happened to you. Just another way of looking at it.

Whoever said flu vaccines 'don't do anything' erm yes they do! Provided you get the correct strains then they lessen the impact of the influenza virus you get.

I got the jab with DS1 back in October and I'm glad I did. DS2 caught it and was various shades of unwell for a couple of weeks, including 2 bouts of high fever and a day chasing him with a bucket and DH caught it off him and it's lingered for about a month. I Always feel dreadful for a few days after the jab and this time was no exception but if I caught flu off DH or DS2, I didn't notice it.