<p>I agree, the CDC is more reputable than the media (and more reputable than an anonymous bulletin board, too!) I’m just saying that nothing is absolute. Most people with swine flu will have a fever, but I have no doubts that a significant number of people can have the swine flu without a fever, too. </p>
<p>I lay no claims to being an expert, even though I worked as a scientist in infectious disease research for over 20 years. It did give me a healthy respect for the wiliness of viruses and bacteria!</p>
<p>Does it really matter so much whether there are people who have swine flu without a fever?</p>
<p>Yes, those people would not realize they are contagious and therefore would not isolate themselves, but this is also true of people who are coming down with the disease and do not have definitive symptoms yet. </p>
<p>There is no foolproof way to isolate everyone with swine flu. Even when colleges advise sick students who live nearby to go home, there’s unlikely to be any way in which they could go home without exposing somebody – the family member or taxi driver who picks them up, or the other people on the bus, train, or plane.</p>
right. folks begin shedding the virus about one day prior to symptoms.</p>
<p>The point I was trying to make is that just people who recently had H1N1 may continue to cough but will no longer be shedding the virus, hence it’s okay for them to go to work/class etc.</p>
<p>We received a call this morning from my son who is at Columbia and he is down with the flu. No telling this early if it is H1N1. Health services has quarantined him to his room with meals to be delivered and gave him a mask to wear when he leaves his room. He of course is most worried about missing classes - most of them are discussion based …</p>
<p>D came down with flu-like symptoms. Too early for the seasonal kind, so there is a good chance she had H1N1. It’s rampant in Boston, apparently. D says she is feeling better, and her fever went down.</p>
<p>One of the difficulties I have seen with this is that kids don’t realize they have swine flu until they have already had ample opportunity to spread it. My son had it - he is at Wake Forest. For the first 2 days, he just thought he had a bad cold - his chief complaint was a sore throat and a cough. On day 3 - he felt much worse - upset stomach, extreme fatigue - but he still went to class! (This was 2 weeks ago - he was among the first cases on campus - so he didn’t know.) By the time he went to the Student Health center that evening, he did have a temp. of 100. He had no idea that he had a temp.; we did not send a thermometer to school with him. He was really shocked to learn he had swine flu. He stayed in his room after that, but he feels badly that he may have spread the flu to others. </p>
<p>Basically, anyone who has a bad cough may actually have the beginning of swine flu; or not, they may just have a cold. I think this is why it is spreading so much - it is very hard to tell at the beginning whether or not you have it. So, there are lots of coughing students on college campuses. Some may have it and be spreading it; some just have a cold.</p>
<p>As the article says, the good news is that in the vast majority of cases it’s no more to worry about than regular flu (which can wipe you out for a week or more, regardless). Still, it’s nothing you want to catch and can create havoc in places where many people live and work in close quarters.</p>
<p>For those of you who are not concerned and feel that it is “just the flu”, there is one major difference. People who have underlying medical conditions are taking the seasonal flu shot because the flu would be extremely dangerous for them. The Swine flu does not have a vaccine as of yet and that is where the danger lies. If you are not concerned about yourself because you are otherwise healthy than think about all of those that are on chemotherapy, have auto immune diseases, asthma, epilepsy and the list goes on. These are the people who are at greater risk for developing severe complications. Therefore if you continue on with your normal activities while knowingly contagious you are putting others in great danger.</p>
<p>momma-three -
You are right. Those who have underlying medical conditions need to be very careful.
Add pregnant women to that list. For some reason their mortality rate appears to be quite high with the H1N1 virus.</p>
<p>I don’t see the need for any healthy person to NOT visit colleges - unless perhaps if there is clearly an epidemic underway.</p>
<p>I almost wish there was a way for everyone to just stay holed up in their homes for a full week and to wear a mask if they went in public. I don’t think America would ever do this, but if it saves just one life it would be worth it. Remember last year when Mexico did this and while it seemed a bit extreme, it sure cut down on the number of flu outbreaks. There was a school in my town who sent all the high schoolers home to avoid spreading the disease. A large number of the kids used the opportunity to go to the mall and other social settings…dumb.</p>
<p>I am on an email list for one of the colleges my S applied to. They are asking infected students to go home if they get sick. If that is not possible, then they are isolating them to their rooms and relocating the roommates. </p>
<p>I am not trying to sound like an extremist, I just wish there was a way to halt the spread.</p>
<p>i was watching TV5 (French news) yesterday and they said that they had their first swine flu death. A young man, 24 years old, with no other condition than the flu, died this week-end after complaining about bad cough and high fever… they gave him Tamiflu but too late ( Tamiflu works only very early in the sickness)… it’s scary because this young man was in good health he just got the flu , the killer flu!</p>
<p>It is a good time to stop shaking hands when making introductions or saying hello to people. Is there a gracious way of avoiding hand shaking, without offending people?</p>
<p>Okay - this is driving me crazy. What chemical do us parents and those over 24 have in their system that kids under 24 don’t have? Was is something in a shot we had that is no longer given This under 24 group SHOULD be the LEAST likely to to die from Swine flu. In Minnesota they said that the average age for hospitalization has been 12. What gives???</p>
It’s rampant in Boston, apparently. D says she is feeling better, and her fever went down.</p>