Is normal flu majoritarily diagnosed as swine flu just in case it is?

[OrangeFish]

If so, I'm terrified of the implications of it. Does anybody worries about this too?

It doesn't really matter though - the treatment is the same - antivirals and antibiotics for any bacterial complications.

what implications specifically? Less than 10% of those calling the hotline on its first day had tamiflu etc prescribed so it suggests the public may be overly self-diagnosing as sf by default. For the vast majority treatment would be the same -symptomatic with pain relief and fluids - , no need even to have antivirals unless you fallinto a high risk group.

Like using tamiflu for normal flu and then not have enough for the real thing.

Lisz, that's reassuring.

From what I have read in various places (I'm not a scientist!), the incidence of 'normal' flu has greatly reduced since swine flu showed up. I believe one or other strain of flu tends to dominate a particular flu season and this year it appears likely to be swine flu. This seems to be particularly the case in the Southern hemisphere where it is the winter flu season.

This time of year you wouldn't expect to see seasonal 'normal' flu, it's normally around in winter which is why flu jabs start from September onwards.