Flu outbreaks in April?

[undergroundpanther]

I live in Maryland...
Monday after Easter,I went to a CVS pharmacy near where I live. I know the people there pretty well as acquaintances including the pharmacist.They told me something rather disturbing.

They said.. all week parents have been bringing in sick kids.They have a flu that is very bad that sends some kids to the emergency room with pneumonia .I was told CVS is one of very few places around this area that sells tamiflu.

Apparently Tamiflu has sold out elsewhere in my area or the other pharmacies can't get it in..Tamiflu is what kills this particular kind of flu hitting right now.People are being charged like a hundred and fifty bucks a pop for a course of tamiflu.The Pharmacists was upset about seeing parents with very sick kids who couldn't pay.She was pretty choked up.I felt bad too.

What I am wondering among other things..
Why are so few pharmacies carrying tamiflu around here?
Especially with a military bases so close by(bird flu is in Iraq and soldiers are coming back ,some may carry it,soldiers in perry point etc.) and wetlands with birds galore?

Why are so many kids including ones that even had flu shots, catching this bug in such significant numbers? (shocking numbers is the word the pharmacist used)

Why so many kids getting sick that the emergency rooms are overwhelmed and CVS is swamped with people coming in a constant stream,some driving from all over to get to CVS one of the few places specifically, for the tamiflu?

Why I am asking this is..I have heard about this flu situation 4 times in 4 different places,from 4 different people while I have been out on Monday and Tuesday. I usually don't hear such talk about all these sick people..as casual chit chat at a checkout counter or as I get stuff at the grocery or stop by 7-11..or CVS.Usually when flu comes up as chit chat it's someone talking about them-self or their kids getting it or getting over it.It's not this sweeping commentary about how many people they know or wondering why so many people are catching it and are sick. The conversation is very flu oriented lately. Why?

Does anyone else know anything about this flu situation going down in their area?
Is it all alot of nothing? Am I paranoid? Or is it just the pharmacists perception being skewed because she works at CVS?
Or is it something local? Or not?
I am curious.

[flyarm]

1. i came down with the flu today! and hubby had it all weekend!

and i am in fla!

been sick as a dog all day!!..so its not just up in maryland..lots of ppl down here have it!

fly7

[pitohui]

5. wow all weekend huh

if it lasted "all weekend" it wasn't the flu, it was prob. some 24 or 48 minor virus

trust me, the flu lasts way longer than a weekend

[havocmom]

10. Got that right, I am on WEEK SIX! Did have complications...

pneumonia and asthma, which I have NEVER had before. First time I have had real flu in 25-30 years and, no, I do not take flu shots. Will seriously try to get pneumonia shots from now on, but our (one and only) County Nurse doesn't see the sense in them and I may have to threaten to hurt her for her to get the vaccine in.

Thought I was about over this crud, but it came raging back for the past week. Started out like being in a car wreck. Only part that didn't hurt was my right elbow. THAT hurt within 24 hours. Fever/chills raged for days. Coughing at day 5 and REAL trouble breathing for over 2 weeks. One good day, then it started up again. There have been days I could barely walk to the bathroom.

Flu is different. Not a weekend event at all.

And, yeah, I am getting on in years, but damn, the kids and young people are winding up in the hospital with this stuff. AND IT'S APRIL, almost May! Shouldn't we be done with this by now?

Also, many folks up here have complained it really messed up vision. I could not read for many days. Computer screen was ok, I can make that big. Books/newspapers were out of the question.

[Ecumenist]

23. I caught the bugger they're calling the

"lung flu" out here back in october, (I'm in northern California). I coughed so much, I thought I was bringing up a lung for the better part of 7 weeks. It's makes you cough every time you try to take a deep breath.

[flyarm]

24. i coughed so hard...

i broke a rib coughing!!

i was traveling in ariz and calif and had to see another doc ..and he called it the 100 day cough!!
its knocked the crap out of me..for almost 2 months!

fly

[Ecumenist]

25. Yep, it does..

It's a horrible flu bug... Just terrible. It's seems that I coughed all through halloween, thanksgiving and christmas. JUst terrible.!!

[flyarm]

19. guess i didn't make that clear..he was down and out for 3 days in bed

during weekend..he is still sick but not near as bad as he was the first 3 days,..first two days he couldn't even get out of bed..

he travels for work..so he had to go ..but he is still feeling crappy as hell..

and i started the beginning of it today..
and this is my second bout of it..i had the 100 day cough for 6 weeks and just got over it a couple weeks ago..and am now having a relapse..

mine didn't go to pneumonia but docs sent me for chest xrays and sinus xrays..and i was put on inhaler...

ok is that enough info????????????

fly

[Mojorabbit]

2. Tamiflu doesn't cure the flu

but it helps mitigate the symptoms and makes the course of it shorter. From what I understand they miscalculated the flu shot again and a strain not covered is kicking ass this year.

[pitohui]

3. it's all a lot of nothing

in my area we had just about the healthiest winter/spring for respiratory disease ever according to the report released last week

sorry to disappoint the haters who were hoping to read that louisiana natives were dropping like flies from katrina cough and other bogus made-up fears

i suspected this might be the case when i returned from evacuation and saw some stars in the sky i hadn't seen in years, katrina was a bitch, but the air certainly did get cleaned out

no flu season to speak of at all, and w. people criss-crossing back and forth all over the country and under all kinds of stress, it's amazing

[Dogmudgeon]

4. Flu isn't season-limited

It can happen at any time of the year. Winter has the peak months, but there have been outbreaks and even epidemics in the spring and summer.

Local outbreaks are common in any year; they just don't add up to much nationally.

--p!

[pitohui]

7. and it isn't necessarily the flu anyway

a pharmacist may feel he has to speak the language of the people and say "flu," but it could be mycoplasma or any number of other communicable respiratory diseases making the rounds of an area

[Dogmudgeon]

13. That's an excellent point

It's not just pharmacists who abuse the word, either. "Flu" is often used to mean "anything infectious that isn't a cold and doesn't involve going to the hospital".

My brother uses the word "flu" for damn near everything.

If one of his sons so much as breaks wind, he diagnoses it as the "flu". And when his wife was preganant, each time, before she knew what was happening and got sick in the morning, he said she had the flu.

--p!

[undergroundpanther]

17. Ahh this wasen't a fart

The kids as the pharmacist discribed were barely able to walk or ,they were carried in by thier parent unable to leave them at home or too young to leave alone in the car.
They were incoherent.Pale.Sick as dogs

[bananas]

22. could be food poisoning

also called "flu" or "stomach flu"

[progressivebydesign]

6. Tamiflu only treats symptoms.. And flu season seemed late this year

Most of the kids at my daughter's school that got it, got in in March this year.. and it's lingering. Lots of places had much colder and rainier weather in the late winter/early spring, so it keeps going in enclosed spaces.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

8. For the last year or so pharmacies have been deluged with RXs for Tamiflu

and there are shortages everywhere as people have been stocking up in case of an avian flu outbreak. Because of this there is very little stock left to combat the garden variety of flu which it is also effective against. Just not enough to go around.... I guess. Although here in S. California I have not heard of an increase in flu cases.

[enlightenment]

9. Tamiflu doesn't kill the influenza virus -- it just

lessens the severity of the symptoms.

The flu season does last into the spring, even if it doesn't seem so. Perhaps the weird weather (thank you global warming) has something to do with it.

Here is the CDC's weekly flu report:



Does that help?

[Ecumenist]

11. It doesn't surprise me that people who've had vaccinations for

Influenza would still catch the flu. It is a roll of the dice that a vaccination would prevent infection. If the viruses used to produce the vaccine are a mixture of the ones MOST LIKELY to cause a problem. Viruses are VERY unstable genetically and are constantly changing their outer coat that has particles called Antigens. The problem comes as the viruses go from one person to the next, it's constantly changes these antigens, which really are just proteins which normally cause an immune response in someone already exposed, which is the whole reason that people get vaccinations to being with.

Now, if the viruses either change their antigens enough OR a wild card virus comes into play, no matter when you got the vaccine shot or how diligently the vaccine was produced, it probably won't help enough to matter. The reason that Vaccinated people often get sick anyway but not as sick as the unvaccinated is because the antigens do not completely match those on the vaccines and because of that, it doesn't prevent it completely but produces a partial immune response, which depending how severe that particular strain of flu is, can mean the difference between life and death, (or what may feel like it).

I suspect that a a rogue virus has come into play or there has been a VERY big antigenic shift away from viral combination in the vaccine that people took in your area. Also, bad weather keeps people inside which facilitates the spread of any disease. If there has been unusually cold or rainy weather happening late in the season, that would explain the late season burst of illness. Schools Are great perfect for spreading viruses, especially during bad weather when kids have to stay inside.

I hope that explains a bit..:hi:

[spuddonna]

12. My kids have been fine all school year, till two weeks ago...

They 'missed' all the colds that were passed around last year. But two weeks ago, right before their spring break, my daughter caught a nasty cold/flu. She was out for a week. My son got it but not quite as bad, was sick for about 4 days. Chills, fever, achy...

Haven't heard of any new bugs out here (near Seattle, WA). It may be very localized. I remember when we lived in NY there was a flu that pretty much shut down our whole town, but didn't go much farther than that.

It's hard to see kids sick... I hope things improve in your hometown soon! :hug:

[CornField]

14. It's typical because people get their flu shots early

The protection from those shots doesn't last forever. My daughter suffers from asthma which is triggered by viruses. She is one of the first people to get a flu shot in the fall (typically September or October). We know that should carry her through to January or February and then we always debate on giving her a booster shot.

Regular folks are usually the last ones in line for their flu shots (late November - late December) -- that would put their protecting wearing thin in April. Thus, more people tend to pick up those bugs that haven't quite died off. (And, since we've had a warmer than normal winter, there are a lot more bugs out there to catch.)

[bluestateguy]

15. Last year I got the flu in April

I spent my 29th birthday in a bathrobe and slippers, dehydrated, coughing and I could not taste or smell anything for four days (which really bothered me). I had a temperature of 100. Because it was April I thought that I could not possibly have the flu or a cold, and that it must be allergies. It wasn't. I was coughing so hard that I pulled a muscle in my chest. That took over a month to heal.

[Horse with no Name]

16. My granddaughter has been extremely sick since Easter

with temps of 102-103.
Took her to the doc and he said it was a flu outbreak. She was wheezing so badly he put her on breathing treatments again.
It is unbelievable that flu is going on this late.

[undergroundpanther]

18. This is what the pharmacist was discribing

This long term fever respiratory stuff that made the kids VERY sick, This wasen't sniffles folks.

[nonconformist]

20. My father in law just got out of the hospital

Was in for 3 days for dehydration due to the flu.

I'm starting to feel crappy myself and I've had a low fever for the last several hours. I really hope I'm not getting sick.

[madrchsod]

21. really bad for about two weeks in december

and a milder reaction a few weeks ago.i missed about 7 days of work because i was to tired and dizzy to drive. check the cdc website about the flu-they have a region by region map

[Dogmudgeon]

26. It could be the Mumps outbreak

400 people (500 according to a different article I saw, but can't find) are infected, mainly in the Midwest.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=1817842&page=1

--p!