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 am really sorry Itwas.

that is terrible itwas.

itwas, that's really sad, so sorry.

have been on the pandemic website and filled in the online symptom checker, and according to that, it is swine flu. it gave me a code number to get tamiflu, but computer crashed at that point.

itwas, I'm so sorry to hear that, how very sad for you all.

MP, thanks for this link - I think we all had SF last week but can't be sure, however I've been considering contacting my GP about how to pay for private testing as he keeps writing to me about getting the jab since I'm preg and have a child under 5. Will contact him and keep you all posted if you're interested.

So sorry to hear about your friend itwas. You must feel very shocked.

Is diabetes badly affected by flu? It seems incongrous doesn't it.

Itwascertainly, I'm so very sorry to hear about your friend. Must be devastating.

Riven, I hope dd's O2 levels improve VERY soon.

Dh and I both had our swine flu shots earlier. We both got called in by the GP as we each have a chronic condition. Although the GP said I was a bit of a mistake as there's no real reason to worry about me. Odd as I'm not sure there's any hard evidence yet to say which underlying health conditions make you particularly susceptible to the very severest effects of swine flu - apart from respiratory conditions clearly not being great if you are going to get flu.

She also said the PCT hadn't yet told GPs to call in the under-fives, even though the Department of Health has been briefing journalists to that effect.

Another doc friend of mine said he felt a bit poorly for 24 hours after his jab, but dh and I are fine.

Interesting this we have just been in a couple of big hospitals and they were both (relatively) full of children with suspected swine flu

Itwas sorry about your friend

GP's surgery was also full of people getting the jab

Only problem I've had since the jab is a very sore arm - worse than any other innoculation I can remember. DH has been a bit under the weather - our GP friend said he felt a bit wiped out for 24 hours after his jab, too.

Worth it if it stops us getting seriously ill, obv. but I really did it in order to stop us infecting ds. (Although he will still be exposed to other people etc. etc. etc.)

Reading this thread with interest. Am a doctor in a district hospital and to be honest the answers to a lot of the questions raised on this thread are just not available. We can test for swine flu with swabs. What we don't know for sure is how long you stay positive after infection and how much, if at all, tamiflu will reduce the period you are positive for. Therefore a negative test does not mean you have not had swine flu -therefore largely pointless paying for this test. Most swine flu is a very mild illness -probably less severe than seasonal flu. However it does seem to affect a younger population more severely than normal seasonal flu -even if previously fit and well. This may be because of acquired immunity from previous exposures to pandemic flu -lacking in the younger population. As for being guinea pigs for the vaccine -all vaccines have side effects. Luckily they are rarer than bad side effects from the flu. Swine flu isn't a new disease -it is a mutation of a flu virus. The vaccine is based on usual seasonal flu vaccine. I have seen some truly horrible cases of swine flu and so have been vaccinated. I also intend to get my daughter vaccinated as soon as available to under 5s. and no am not in the pay of the vaccine companies! Just a concerned mum who has seen the possible effects of swine flu.