I think I know why the swine flu is so contagious.

[The Backlash Cometh]

In a nutshell, it has a longer incubation period than they're telling us.

This is all anecdotal, but, it bears telling. I just had a talk with someone who just got over it in the last week. She said that it began as a sore throat and that she had a feeling that she was coming down with something, but she fought through it. This went on for two weeks. Finally, she came down with a fever of 103 degrees and was also vomiting. She went to the doctor and he diagnosed her with swine flu. Her doctor was going to hospitalize her but she refused because she had no insurance. She kept herself quarantined at home and told me that during that time, she ate very little and drank even less. She had to go back to get a shot to stop the vomiting. On the fifth day, she called to say that she couldn't get the fever down so the nurse talked her through an old ice bath trick. That did work.

She said that her ribs felt like they were cracked from all the coughing. And that she felt terrible to think about the fact that in those two weeks before the symptoms finally came to a head, she was exposing everyone she came in contact with. It was a considerable number, because she is a hair dresser.

So, why aren't they talking more about this incubation period?

[iamjoy]

1. That May Not Be The Case

I don't necessarily think she was coming down with swine flu for two weeks. From what I understand,a cold has a gradual onset of symptoms and with the flu it is sudden. So, it is entirely possible she had a cold virus for two weeks and then got the H1N1

Of course, it's also possible the so-called experts are wrong about the gradual/sudden or that it doesn't describe every case.

[aquart]

6. You're confusing "onset" and "coming down with".

"Onset" is it, no question you are sick sick sick. "Coming down with" can just mean kinda tired for a week or so.

[Strelnikov_]

18. That is what it sounds like to me

Parallels my event of 1997.

Early Feb. came down with a cold. Lingered for a couple of weeks, I worked, quite a bit outdoors since construction season was approaching.

Then, bam, influenza.

My theory, lingering cold weakened system.

[Yo_Mama]

2. You're right and it is a good observation

The Chinese figured it out this summer. Because of their procedures in tracking people, they confirmed that some people were walking around for at least 10 days before coming down with the acute flu and appeared to be contagious for most of that time,.

And my brush with this fits the above picture nearly exactly, as does my husband's. He ended up in the hospital, but only became really sick weeks after he first got the sore throat/brief sniffles phase. He thought that was a reaction to the regular flu shot!

It's a sneaky virus; people often don't realize they are really sick at first. I have heard from people who are still sick after 7-8 weeks, but they all were walking around with it for a long time. Another thing is that they have also confirmed that many people are still contagious a week after their fever has dropped.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. That last part is frightening.

She insisted on giving me a hug as I left. If her story rings true, I saw her about twelve days after she came down with a fever and about seven days after her fever broke.

If I get sick in the next month, this will be the most likely exposure because I'm pretty much a recluse.

Oh, and it may have been denial, but she believed that she stopped being contagious once the fever began.

[Yo_Mama]

16. I don't think so

I think it's just a few days to maybe 10-12 days until you feel the first symptoms after exposure, judging by the early studies. Maybe 2 weeks, because early on when cases were very few there appeared to be 2 week splits between one case and the contact.

But not a month.

However it does seem as if many people merely have light symptoms that do not feel like flu at onset, and only end up really sick after a month or two. One of my friends in CA had been sick for 8 weeks with a very mild fever and extreme tiredness, and when he went to the doctor the doctor diagnosed viral pneumonia.

So maybe incubation is not that long, but probably the infectious period is very long. Otherwise this thing would not be spreading so efficiently.

Anyway, I think the other poster's comments about resting at any first symptoms are the best advice. However I usually do that - I very rarely even get a cold much less the flu, because if I feel bad I go to bed for a day or half a day, pop a fever, and the next day it's over. The problem with this thing is that I followed that strategy and it didn't work - I am down with my fourth relapse, and this is the first time I have run a high sustained fever. It's almost as if my body never recognized it as a real threat. Eventually I did develop viral pneumonia. The only sustained symptom I had was tiredness.

I feel like such a fool, and I do feel very guilty for possibly having exposed many people, but I really did not have flu symptoms or cold symptoms for much of this time.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. Those relapses are a problem.

There is no easy way out of it once you get to that point, besides rest. My mother use to say it all the time. Be careful with the relapse.

[Strong Atheist]

27. Belated Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[Yo_Mama]

4. An Early Link To The Chinese Epidemiology

http://www.promedmail.org/pls/otn/f?p=2400:1001:1170346335858020::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1004,77676

This is from the ProMed system for tracking emerging infectious disease in animals and humans.

Anyway, the long incubation period and the mildness of the early infection was apparent early on. This virus is different from most human flu strains in that it often produces only mild symptoms, but then in some cases results in serious illness at a later date. However many people are quite infectious during the period of mild illness.

It's worth noting that the Chinese had already figured out by the end of last May that Australia had H1N1 and that there must be a very high number of cases in the US.

The last I saw, the CDC was giving the incubation period as 7-10 days. However that is probably an artifact of testing, because once you clear the initial virus, a swab test of the throat won't show positive for Type A. However for some unlucky people, the virus has traveled to the lungs or other parts of the body due to the mix of different tags that allow the virus to attach to different types of tissue than a typical Type A flu.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Why is the CDC dragging on this?

[stray cat]

5. Not that simple - explain how your theory explains its persistence our of season?

However, the incubation is a reason they want medical personal to get vaccinated so they don't spend a week infecting their patients who are sick and or immune suppressed in the hosital

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. The long incubation period where symptoms are mild would explain

why its so persistence. Would also explain why so called healthy people and the young are getting hit so hard by this. They are probably burning themselves out during the period when the mild symptoms are present.

[Chemisse]

9. This is really interesting

Now if I get a prolonged sore throat I will know enough to prepare for a possible acute sickness.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. Exactly.

It just means to increase the precautions when you get a sore throat so you don't infect another person. It would also give you time to prepare, making chicken soup and whatever else staples you might need.

[northernlights]

11. you are contgagious from the time you show any symptoms...

even mild symptoms. That's not the incubation period. You are infected with the flu. By not stopping, resting, staying at home to avoid contact with others, and caring for yourself, the infection (eg virus) spreads.

The incubation period lasts from the time of exposure to the time that the virus is replicating within your cells. You are infected from the time the virus is replicating -- that is the definition of infected. Your symptoms start after your immune system has picked up on the virus -- and there needs to be enough virions circulating for that to happen -- and starts fighting the infection. Initial symptoms are mostly a result of the immune system actions in response to the virus, not the virus itself. If you don't take care of yourself, the infection will progress, spread to more cells, reproduce more virions.

I've avoided getting serious colds or flus for decades simply by taking a few days off and nurturing myself at the onset of symptoms, so my body can fight off the infection while viral levels are still relatively low. Not toughing it out until I'm obvious sick.

[The Backlash Cometh]

20. Good advice.

[branders seine]

12. Great.

I've had a minor nuisance cough all week and woke up with a ripping sore throat today.

I had the flu (though not the swine flu) just two weeks ago...

Ukkk.

[The Backlash Cometh]

21. Just take it easy. Cancel that trip to the ski lodge this week.

That sort of thing.

[branders seine]

25. What about my trip to Ibiza?

I guess I'll have to settle for my living room again.

[Lisa0825]

29. For those who get a mild case of the swine flu, the symptoms are pretty much the same as any other

flu. The doc who addressed our departmental meeting said that if you get the flu this year, it is MOST LIKELY H1N1. So you very well could have had it. Unless you were tested, and most people are not unless they get critical, you wouldn't know.

[girl gone mad]

13. Your friend should be tested for an immune disorder.

3 weeks is not a normal course for flu. She could also be living with too much stress (who isn't these days?) or have poor nutrition.

[The Backlash Cometh]

22. She doesn't have to go to a doctor to diagnose her with living with too

much stress. She beat cancer, still deals with panic attacks and works through her discomforts.

[Statistical]

26. However it is good advice.

Anyone who takes 3 weeks to get over a cold or fly *may* have a more serious problem.
It could just be stress but it also could be something like HIV or another condition which weakens immune system response.

[deaniac21]

14. You probably need data from more than 1 hair dresser before you

publish your study results.

[The Backlash Cometh]

23. I'll keep that in mind.

I'm disappointed that Institute of Anecdotal Inference doesn't carry water around here.

[rucky]

15. Hard to say, because lots of people get sinus-y when the seasons change.

My family's got the sinsues for about a month now - as we do this time every year. We're beating it with a rinse. Still taking flu precautions, but I don't think we've got it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

24. I would be happy with getting a mild case.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

17. The fact that people can be contagious 24 hours before showing any symptoms is partly responsible.

[pipi_k]

28. This is something I never understood about people who don't know a cold from the flu

Like, I see where doctors have to actually explain the differences. Maybe it's just me.

I know when I'm coming down with a cold. It starts with a prickly feeling at the back of my throat and then takes a pretty familiar course with lots of stuffiness, congestion, coughing and sneezing, and it's all centered in the head region, and I can function, although with some difficulty. Over in seven days (unless complicated by bronchitis)

With the flu, which I've had only twice, there's no "coming down with". One minute I'm sitting there fine as can be. Next minute I feel like a ton of bricks has been dropped on my head....shaking, chills, my skin hurts to touch it, headache, and a general feeling that being hit by a runaway bus would probably hurt less. Totally unable to function for at least three days, and the after effects go on for a couple of weeks...tiredness, just feeling "blah".


Maybe other people's flu isn't that severe. I just sometimes wonder when people say they had "a touch of the flu". Whaaaaa?????? A "touch"?

Maybe it was something other than influenza....

???

[Lisa0825]

30. Most people misuse the word "flu."

They use it for the common cold and for stomach viruses. The flu is a respiratory tract infection, but many people get food poisoning and say they have a stomach flu. It's a verbal pet peeve of mine.

I have had the flu twice in my life.... when I was 18 and when I was 39. Both times were as you described.... like a ton of bricks.