Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

[Ronan Kelly]

Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides
By Michael Macdonald (CP) – 1 hour ago

HALIFAX, N.S. — Marga Cugnet thought she knew what she was in for when she came down with swine flu last October.

But the health administrator from Weyburn, Sask., said she was annoyed and somewhat dejected when the potent H1N1 virus left her with lingering symptoms that did not let up until earlier this month.

That's five months of suffering through a hacking, post-flu cough and bouts of fatigue.

"I never went anywhere without having a bag of cough drops with me because I would just get into a coughing spell that wouldn't stop," said Cugnet, the 56-year-old vice-president of primary health with the Sun Country Health Region.

"I knew it could take months to go away, but I didn't think it would last that long."

snip

"It almost triggers a bit of temporary asthma," he said. "Your body is hyperactive to getting narrowed airways. ... It's your body's own reaction to itself."
.....

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5gnwu3WpVw23e6ALgp1bpy2BlAoDw

 

[Shiloh]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/03/29/h1n1-flu-cough.html


H1N1 cough may last months, patient says
Last Updated: Monday, March 29, 2010 | 6:24 PM ET
The Canadian Press

Canadians who contracted mild cases of swine flu may continue to cough for months.

The majority of people infected with H1N1 worldwide showed symptoms such as fever, chills, headache, sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches and general fatigue that lasted for a week to 10 days.

With seasonal flu, it's mainly seniors who fall sick and need to be hospitalized. With H1N1 the pattern was different.

"We had an otherwise young and healthy population really getting hit quite hard with this," said Dr. Michael Gardam of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. "Unfortunately, this is the age group that thinks they are pretty much immune to everything ? That's the main reason why governments were pushing the vaccine."

The median age of Canadians hospitalized in intensive care for H1N1 was 28, compared with 71 for people admitted with seasonal flu or flu-related pneumonia.

While there are no comparable statistics for mild symptoms, blood tests on a sample of people in Ontario suggest a total of 30 per cent of the province's population may have been infected since April 2009. Estimates from the U.S. and the United Kingdom are similar, Gardam said.

Months of coughing...

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/03/29/h1n1-flu-cough.html#ixzz0jcxEl3dD

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/03/29/h1n1-flu-cough.html#ixzz0jcx0l635

 

[gsgs]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

measure the amount of coughs in public places
put it on a webpage

easier and cheaper than ILI-surveillance.

I assume these people are no longer infectious,
so why do they cough ? No advantage for the virus

 

[tropical]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

so why do they cough ?

after infection prevailed,
if their tissues were permanently damaged from the previous pflu infection (as studies cited),
their resp. tract reacts to things the healthy ones will not.

 

[gsgs]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

does (prolonged) coughing improve their resp.tract then ?

 

[Missouriwatcher]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

Effect of Pneumonia and Whooping Cough in Childhood on Adult Lung Function
Ian D.A. Johnston, M.D., David P. Strachan, M.D., and H. Ross Anderson, M.D.

"...We found that having pneumonia by the age of 7 years is associated with reduced ventilatory function at the age of 34 or 35 years and that this association is independent both of a history of asthma or wheezing and of potentially confounding factors associated with lower respiratory tract infection. By contrast, having whooping cough before the age of seven years is not generally associated with reduced lung function..."
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/338/9/581

Pulse-oximetry accurately predicts lung pathology and the immune response
during influenza infection
David Verhoeven, John Teijaro, and Donna L. Farber
Department of Surgery
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, MD 21210

"...It has been shown that following influenza infection of mice, antigen depots persist in the lung and lymphoid tissue (Jelley-Gibbs, 2007; Zammit, 2006), which may continue to drive immune activation leading to continued lung inflammation as seen here in all infected groups. SpO2 levels can accurately indicate immunopathology in the lung long after virus is cleared..."
http://www.farberlab.org/site/wp-content/uploads/pulse-ox-virology.pdf

 

[tropical]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

does (prolonged) coughing improve their resp.tract then ?

the tract tissue react to the irritation coming from the damaged tissue itself

M., #6:
"leading to continued lung inflammation"

 

[tetano]

Re: Swine flu fallout: many suffer from nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides

Flu: the gift that keeps on giving

Category: Influenza treatment ? Public health preparedness ? Swine flu ? Vaccines
Posted on: March 30, 2010 6:19 AM, by revere

There is a good Canadian Press by Michael Macdonald about the often long time it takes to make a full recovery from flu. A full blown case of classical influenza can really lay you low for days or weeks. People often report never having felt so sick. But once you are "recovered" and back to work or your daily activities you aren't necessarily fully recovered:

Marga Cugnet thought she knew what she was in for when she came down with swine flu last October.

But the health administrator from Weyburn, Sask., said she was annoyed and somewhat dejected when the potent H1N1 virus left her with lingering symptoms that did not let up until earlier this month.

That's five months of suffering through a hacking, post-flu cough and bouts of fatigue.

"I never went anywhere without having a bag of cough drops with me because I would just get into a coughing spell that wouldn't stop," said Cugnet, the 56-year-old vice-president of primary health with the Sun Country Health Region.

"I knew it could take months to go away, but I didn't think it would last that long." (Michael Macdonald, Canadian Press)

It's not just a hacking cough, either. Months of enervation for some, moderate fatigue for others and not being as robust as before for many isn't uncommon. These aren't people who wound up in the hospital but people who suffered through the flu at home. The cost in lost work and productivity when a sizable fraction of the population is affected (Canadian public health authorities are estimating 10% to 30%) is staggering. And with pandemic flu the age distribution gets shifted to the left, with younger people who are working most affected.

There are a lot of bad diseases out there, but in terms of the sheer number of previously healthy people who can have their daily lives affected for a significant period, flu gets my respect.

The majority of cases (although not all) can be prevented by vaccination, especially in the younger age groups. That's why governments push vaccination. I'm not so sure why many people resist it or don't take the trouble to get it.

Maybe because they've never had a case of full-blown flu.


http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2010/03/flu_the_gift_that_keeps_on_giv.php