Can you have swine flu without a temp?

[Ewe]

My company has recently released a swine flu policy, according to this policy if you don't have a temperature then you don't have swine flu.

Is this true? I am fairly sure I have seen on here that it isn't. Is there any medical lit to back this up?

Answer to OP is a big fat no. I have ahd t ofocus on this from a work perspective and the medical defs. go along the following lines:
SF is diagnosed as

1. a swift ( over a few hours) rise in body temp. to 38 degrees.
2. A horrible wet or dry cough
3. Severe muscle and joint aches.

Put these together and SF is diagnosed. Last about 5 days. Not much difference with standard flu but the speed of the temp rise and the severity of aches makes some distinction.

Of course it isn't as bad as manflu.

Thats good to know! So all the reported cases in the US (only got that from MN thread, not seen in person) were hype then...

suspect not so Eli. The defs I describe are drawn from the Uk info sources. I am needing to know this to help our HR section process varying messages of staff being ill.

I mean suspect any illness outside of the criterion above are not SF cases. Could be other illnesses.

Pan
That may be the criteria that your company and large sections of the NHS are using to try and clasify peoples illness, that does not make it a definitive answer.

Without testing everycase properly they have to draw a line in the sand somewhere, it seems that temperature is the most common symptom so this is what has been chosen.

Not everyone will get a fever with Seasonal flu and as with seasonal flu peoples symptons will differ with swine flu.

With the huge numbers of people getting diagnosis over the phone often not from a GP high numbers will be misdiagnosed.

I have had four days of coughing, aching, headache, terrible tiredness, feeling hot but not running a temperature. Felt bad enough to take to my bed, but no fever. So I assumed whatever it was, it wasn't flu.

Then a friend told me off for letting my daughter go to children's activities when she could be incubating. So I did the online swine flu calculator and it told me to ring my GP. GP said, "Have you got swine flu? Who knows? Maybe and maybe not".

I've decided that I don't need to know for sure. I am not keeping my daughter at home, though I would of course try to ensure that neither she nor I come into close contact with vulnerable people.

I read that even if you are diagnosed with Swine Flu, that your family members should continue as normal.

can anyone link to the swine flu calulator thingy please, can't find it. Dh is ill with lots of symptoms but no temp. Hope he DOES have it, as then we can all relax rather than fretting about him getting ill later in summer when we are supposed to be going away (he is driver, I cannot!)

If you go through the symptom checker it will tell you to ring your GP and stay away from people, even if you haven't got a temperature, if you've got other SF symptoms.

ah found sympton checker but is not working ''due to the high demand on the service....''

Think DH deffo has Whine Flu...

My DS is snotty and has a cough which wakes him up at night. He is in good spirits and has not lost his appetite. Should I worry?

The Medical Journal of Australia says

"Recent analysis of a number of confirmed cases has not added much to what was already known about the clinical presentation of swine influenza A. The incubation period is a median of 3-4 days (range, 1-7 days).4 The virus typically causes an illness characterised by fever, cough, sore throat, malaise and headaches; however, fatal pneumonia or a mild upper respiratory tract illness without fever represent two extremes of multiple possible clinical presentations. Diarrhoea and vomiting were present in more than a third of patients in a US case series,14 raising the possibility of transmission through vomitus or faeces. It is also worth noting that a lack of fever has been observed in mild, and even severe, cases.14 This is important because fever is part of the case definition for identifying and testing a suspected case;15 therefore, cases in afebrile patients are probably being missed."

It doesn't seem as though you absolutely have to have a temperature to have it, though that probably doesn't really change anything. You're still not going to get Tamiflu in this country unless you have a fever (but why have it if you're not that ill anyway). A few people will be going to work and on holiday thinking they haven't got swine flu when they really have, too. But then a lot would probably go anyway even if they knew it might be swine flu, if their symptoms were mild enough.