Herding Cats- what was the flu from Mexico you mentioned?
Major peeve with me- people wo carry on when sick and contagious and spread it! STAY HOME!!!!!!!!!!
Another peeve. Saying you have the flu when all you have is a bad cold or stomach virus. (FWIW there is no such thing as stomach flu. It's just a noro or rotavirus. )As someone said- if you have the real deal, the last place you will be is on FB talking about it!
OK, rant over. I haven't been out since last Friday. Can't get out of it today...sigh....
It's the H1N1/Swine Flu that came out of Mexico late in the season (around end of March/early April). That was considered a "pandemic", and it was a very, very bad flu. I had fever over 103*, was in bed for just over a week, and slept most of that time. It was awful.
It's NOT H1N5, which is the "Bird flu" which virologists expect to come around someday and wipe out a whole bunch of people - similar to the 1917 Spanish influenza. But TBH, any "new" flu can do the damage...
I was in the pharmacy getting my regular meds, and I was sick - with a cold, not the flu - and this poor woman was so scared she'd get the flu. I coughed into my elbow, kept my distance, opened a hand sanitizer thingy, and used it, and that made her feel a bit better. Still kept a huge distance between me and her, but she felt better.
Flu is scary. It can kill, and can also leave the body so debilitated that secondary infections (staph, pneumonia, et cetera) can enter into the body and kill you. That's why they say that elderly, young, and immunocompromised should ALWAYS get the vax, each and every year.
Average annual deaths from whichever flu is floating around is +/- 30,000, clustered mainly in young and elderly folks. They say that this flu season has all the earmarks of getting worse, simply because of the flu itself (I think it's H3N1, but am not positive). This particular virus is very bad, and will make you very sick; but what's also good is that the makers of the vax anticipated this particular strain and added this to the vax this year.
Generally speaking, if you haven't already gotten vax'd, I'd suggest that you get it, While you may still get the flu, it won't be as if you hadn't gotten the vax, and that's something important to note. It will also help prevent you being an "asymptomatic carrier", meaning you can carry the virus but not be ill, thus bringing the illness into the environment around you and those inhabitants therein.
Most drugstores have clinics now where you can get the vax. And there seems to be several websites which will allow you to plug in your zip, and find the nearest place for a flu shot.
I'm glad to see the beginning of a topping off in the eastern part of the US; however, the numbers are still expected to rise, and this may be the crest of the first "wave", as often flu's do come in waves...usually no more than 3, but there have been occasions where it's been in 4 or even 5 waves.
Best-
Herding Cats