Only 10% of children will have symptoms with Swine Flu - research

[morningpaper]

Very interesting

"The Health Protection Agency has reviewed blood tests which showed higher levels of infection among children than originally thought.

In hotspot areas, such as London and the West Midlands, a third of school-aged children may have had the virus, but only one in 10 or less got ill."

If private clinics would screen individual children for a fee, then I'm sure lots of parents would take it up to save them the anguish of deciding whether to immunise or not.

I know I would MP. DS has asthma and I rather not vacinate if he's had the damn thing.

It's infuriating isn't it? DS1 is v poorly this week - hacking cough that's making him vomit, but no fever at all, so I'm assuming it's not SF. The nursery tells us we have to take them to our GP if they show any of the symptoms, but why? The GP won't tell me anything I don't know already, and won't be diagnosing swine flu, as far as I can tell.

That's just the sort of thing I was hoping they would discover eventually. They've always said some people would have subclinical infections but it would be great if it turned out that was what most people had.

I read on another thread though that blood tests to show whether someone's had a past infection are months away and likely to be prohibitively expensive even then. But even without a test just knowing that the percentage of cases who get ill is lower than thought would be reassuring.

I'm very happy to read that esp as we are in London - hopefully my kids have already had it!

That's really interesting MP thanks. I'm just trying to decide whether to give my probably asthmatic child and younger toddler the vaccination, and I am still convinced we have had it. With that research, I am more convinced we must have...

On the other hand, my GP just told me only 10% of local cases where sentinel surgeries had been testing had come back positive. But I suppose that doesn't include those non- or low-symptomatic people who don't rock up at the surgery.

There is a blood test which can show antibodies then - I thought there was - why can't we get this blood test privately? I would be happy to pay for it and it would help me decide whether to get the jab.

My consultant suggested that I have the blood test but GP surgery refused.

It is heartening to see a more 'positive' SF article in the press too. Thanks MP.

dollshouse how can you get it done then? There must be a way...who could we contact?

Ring your local private hospital. Its just a standard blood test. I haven't bothered enquiring as when I was going to get ds tested to check his immunity for mmr it was over £100 and I can't afford that right now.

will they do it? I'll ask. thanks.

po: let me know what you find out

So, if you've had Swine Flu already, you're not going to get it again?
I thought it was like normal flu and you can get it over and over......no?

No, I think that normal flu gives you immunity for three months or so, but once you've had swine flu then you are immune from the same strain

But that might be total toss

I didn't know that about normal flu

That's because it's bollocks actually, I have just checked

Look this is interesting

hahaha.

I can't see links on MN (still trying to get to the bottom of that one as it was fine a few weeks ago ), can you give me the web address?

Fruitbat it could be your firewall - that was what it was when mine did that. HTH,.

Thanks for this MP. I'm waiting for them to start offering testing, it isn't going to happen is it...ds1 could have had it at least twice already, not a clue, and I'm not prepared to vaccinate ds2 if he's already been exposed.

What a minefield.

can someone just explain this to me in simple terms my sleep deprived brain (8 week old ds!) cannot even read and comprehend at the mo! (left £40 in cash machine today sticking out what a loon!)

Does this mean many of us may have had it with mild symptoms? Also can you access a test privately to check for this? Was v v ill with a cold, worst cold of my life bed bound for 2 days when pg with ds in summer. Thought it was severe cos of being pg but have wondered a few times if it was sf? Also if it was would ds then be immune?

ds catching sf is what terrifies me the most [sad. dd can have vaccine but he's too little.

I understood from my GP and from Musukebba on this thread that there isn't a test that will show that you have had SF, only a swab that can tell if you have it. But perhaps I/they are wrong. I'd be glad to find that there was because I would pay for such a test if it wasn't too horrific a price too...

well it seems from that article as if there is. Confusing...

someone could make a HUGE amount of money by offering it privately...

If you mean the Time article, I think they're talking about specific lab research, for which the facilities are surely very limited and specialist. I got the impression that even a commercial test for antibodies is a way off...

What does the first article mean then?

There must be SOMEONE here that didn't do a humanities degree...