I am in an hysterical mess with this flu thing at the moment. i have asthma and my husband has a serious heart condition. I work in in a large hospital and am terrified of bringing it home to him. So much so over the last few weeks I've considered moving out so I dont give him it and resigning so I can stay in!
After talking to a consultant (I'm a ward manager), here's some of the things I was told today. Hope it helps.
Most of the articles in the newspapers are rubbish. Apparently there was a story in the Daily Mail the other day so full of misinformation and contradiction medical staff have lodged a complaint. If you have to bother with the media only read the BBC Health pages.
The flu red map that screams INFECTION, is a survey tool. It doesnt record actual diagnosis. People sign up to it and every week complete a survey of how they are feeling. That is what the figures are. You only need to look at the pages on here to see how many folk misdiagnose themselves to know how inaccurate it could be. Apparently it is only really useful after flu season as a guide but the media have jumped all over it as red looks fierce.
If you want figures about how many people actually have flu the the Public Health (England) and Health Protection (Scotland) issue flu reports every week. These contain the exact number of diagnosed, hospital admissions, vaccine reliability and also give last years figures for comparison. Read these not headlines.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statis...al-flu-reports
Flu is a real threat not just to you but to others you have contact with. Everyone who is eligible for a vaccine should get it.. If you're not eligible, I'd buy it. But that's only my opinion,I'm not a clinician.
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I had read on the news a few days before about a 20 year old healthy mom of 2 dying the day after being diagnosed and thats what freaked me out. In the end it was like the domino effect, one by one we all got it but it was no different then any other flu.
Originally Posted by ankietyjoe
