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Original poster

If no one is seeing a Dr or being swabbed how do they know its actually swine flu?

26 replies

MerlinsBeard · 20/07/2009 10:49

Am intrigued as to how they can know as some of the symptoms are so similar to seasonal colds/flu/stomach bugs that we seem to get at this time of year anyway.

OP posts:
filchthemildmanneredjanitor · 20/07/2009 10:51

yes i agree

and surely if they are attributing things to swine flu then people may be missing out on treatment for things that actually need anti biotics?

SoupDragon · 20/07/2009 10:52

Equally, if they swab for SF every time, it would waste shed loads of money.

hercules1 · 20/07/2009 10:52

I dont think this is the season for flu.

Original poster
MerlinsBeard · 20/07/2009 10:54

Is Tamiflu an antibiotic? or specifically for swine flu (have been avoiding the hype and it's hard to pick out the bits i want to know!)

Yes agree the swabbing everyone would be a nightmare but wondered how they know it's swine flu and not something else entirely.

OP posts:
Nefret · 20/07/2009 10:54

Well absolutely. They are saying there are so many cases of swine flu but if people aren't seeing a doctor how do they know htye relaly have swine flu or just another type of virus. Also how many people have been told they just have a virus and actually have swine flu? Me and my dd had a soar throat and high temperature recently but were told it was just a virus. It is all too confusing really

lal123 · 20/07/2009 10:55

they don't - they are just guessing that it is.....because as hercules says its not the season for regular flu. Estimates are that only about 1 in 10 of those diagnosed symptomatically with sf will actually have it

hercules1 · 20/07/2009 10:55

Arent they still testing some people to keep track to make sure not mutating?

Hulababy · 20/07/2009 10:56

There are lots of other things which have similar symptoms to swine flu. Especially following the new flowcharts.

Theer will be lots of people who think they have had swine flu who haven't. And there will be people who have had it who didn't realise.

There has already been at least one case of a wrong diagnosis over the phone iirr. Someone was told they had swine flu and was later rushed to hospital with meningitis.

lal123 · 20/07/2009 10:57

Tamiful is not an antibiotic and is not specifically for swine flu - its for generally preventing and treating flu

spinspinsugar · 20/07/2009 10:59

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Musukebba · 20/07/2009 11:02

It's not the seasonal flu time but definitely the swine flu season! However the amount of testing cannot be supported by the regional laboratories; simple as that. In London and Birmingham, a few weeks ago there were in excess of 500 sampples per day coming in, some places working 24/7. It just wasn't sustainable.

Testing is being done for hospital in-patients and in some GP surgeries as sentinel practices. More than 400 swine flu 'isolates' have been tested at the HPA for resistance (~20 fully) and no resistance found so far in UK.

filchthemildmanneredjanitor · 20/07/2009 11:04

i'm waiting for the gps to call me back now because ds1 is ill-sore throat, nausea, headache, temp. he's not terribly ill and normally it would be calpol , juice and tlc but because of this-i have phoned the dr.

they have said they think it may be sf and have given me a number to call for the 'swine flu hotline' who will arrange for him to have anti virals apparently.

i will update when i hear!

Original poster
MerlinsBeard · 20/07/2009 11:05

500 per day?! eek that is a lot to handle

OP posts:
LIZS · 20/07/2009 11:07

The NHS symptom thingy is a bit catch all , once you've eliminiated the acute symptoms of a potential heart attack , meningitis etc almost by default you may have sf so to call a gp - not much point if you've already had it for a day or two though as Tamilfu is ineffective by then. Not sure of its prophilactic qualities, if any, but there seems to be mass overprescription to other household members/contacts on this basis. Agree the likes of ear infection and tonsillitis may well get missed until they develop to a more serious stage.

Original poster
MerlinsBeard · 20/07/2009 11:09

ok the truth behind this thread is that i am kind of an evil parent and rarely medicate my children unless they really need it. they go to school unless they are either genuinely ill and unable to work or if they are likely to infect others with something other than an ordinary cold.

Am trying to not to get caught up in the hype surrounding it and keep my normal level headedness while at the same time remaining vigilant of symptoms and the speed in which they come on.
(none of my children are ill but siblings of children the mix with have shown symptoms)

Its hard to strike a decent balance actually!

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 20/07/2009 11:23

I am an Evil Parent too. As my children are rarely ill, I'm guessing it will be bloody obvious they have it.

3 days before the end of school, it was announced there was SF in the school. 4 days before that, the entire school was crammed into the school hall for 3 end of year discos!

Nezzi · 20/07/2009 11:24

I told our doc that DS (10 months old) had had a cold for 2 weeks and he was diagnosed as "maybe" having had swine flu but as he was well over the 48 hr time limit for Tamiflu, it wasn't prescribed.
He asked if anybody else in our household had any symptoms so I told him DP had a bit of a cold. He was promptly ordered home from work and they were both "quarantined" for a week.
Neither of them were swabbed or treated but I guess they have both been added to the stats. Not a lot else the doc could do I suppose.

melmog · 20/07/2009 11:29

We're off to the docs this afternoon. My dd2 has symptoms that could be due to teething, an ear infection or swine flu. I honestly didn't know what to do as I'm normally a calpol and it will sort itself out mum.
When I rang they asked us to come down to the swine flu clinic as she has 4/5 of the symptoms.

Now I'm worrying that if she hasn't got it she'll catch it at the clinic!

ilovemydogandmrobama · 20/07/2009 11:35

DD (3 years) just got Tamiflu. She has sore throat, runny nose, but was complaining of being cold and was shivering. She has been on contact with children from a school with confirmed cases.

Tamiflu is used for preventing flu.

On the Tamiflu leaflet it says: 'The signs (symptoms) of influenza include the sudden onset of fever (>37.8), cough, runny nose, headaches, muscle aches and often extreme fatigue. These symptoms may also be caused by inflections other than influenza. True influenza viruses only occurs during annual outbreaks (epidemics) at times when influenza viruses are spreading in the local community...'

LeonieSoSleepy · 20/07/2009 12:09

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

filchthemildmanneredjanitor · 20/07/2009 15:18

well flu people are thinking that ds just has a bug rather than the flu-thank goodness. his temp has come down and he says he feels a little better although he has been asleep for 2 hours now. his breathing sounds a bit fast but i guess that is normal with any virus.

pofacedandproud · 20/07/2009 15:24

I had a horrible flu like illness days before the time of first Swine Flu uk cases, end of April. and dcs had coughs and cold. I ended up on a nebulizer in hospital, triggered asthma very badly. If it had been a few weeks later it would have been diagnosed as SF I'm sure. How I wish it had been! [we'd had no contact with Mexico or USA though]

JennyPenny22 · 20/07/2009 16:46

I think we had it, but we werent too ill to deal with it at home and stay inside so thats what we did. We are not one of the stats as we never reported it

lisasimpson · 20/07/2009 16:54

so has this Tamiflu always been around then? - it's just I thought there was no treatment for a virus like flu? (or so the docs have always said)

Musukebba · 20/07/2009 22:11

It's been around a few years; long enough for seasonal H1N1 influenza to become resistant to it.

Interestingly, I wonder whether there'll be a silver lining to the pandemic swine H1N1 flu cloud: which is that resistant H1N1 is cuckolded from its ecological niche (as happened to the prevailing seasonal types following previous pandemics of 1957 and 1968).