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PANDEMIC ALERT LEVEL
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Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

Illness in New Zealand

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KiwiMum View Drop Down
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    Posted: July 05 2018 at 5:14pm
Hi all, here in NZ we suffered from the Aussie flu last winter ahead of it hitting the Northern Hemisphere in your winter 2017/2018. We are now in mid winter again and what's interesting is that there is a really nasty cold / flu striking us down in huge numbers but as yet, I've seen nothing about it in the papers. 

This illness arrived in our district (Canterbury, in the South Island) about a month ago and has spread like wildfire through the schools. At one of my childrens martial arts classes last week only one child turned up out of 20. 

The cold (or it may be a type of flu) starts with a terrible headache, followed by sore throat, stiff neck, achy body, runny nose, fever for a day or two, and then it settles in with a deep, mucus laden cough. We had it in our family about 3 weeks ago and are still suffering from it. Two of us got it and my youngest child still has blocked ears, glands up, a deep cough and a very runny nose. I still have the cough and the runny nose. 

What's interesting about it is it is highly contagious, and so long lasting. Other people I know with it are all commenting on the depth and persistence of the cough. I have spoken to our local medical centre and the practice nurse told me it's spreading fast through the schools. 

Whilst this is a cold, it's worse than anything we've seen in my memory, and I can't help but think back to the progress of the Spanish Flu in 1918 and how the first wave was a mild flu, followed a few months later by the killer flu. Are we seeing the first wave of a new, mutated illness here?

The progress here amongst the parents I know is that the children get it first and then the parents catch it from them. Right now, I know a number of parents and teachers with it, having caught it from children. As yet, I haven't heard of an old person with it, but am sure it's just a matter of time since it is so contagious. Today is the end of the winter term and holidays start tomorrow so there will be plenty of children off to visit grandparents. 
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 05 2018 at 6:34pm
Hi Kiwimum, hope you guys get better. Did you all get a flu shot this year? I can tell you if this comes to the U.S. it will spread through the schools really fast! Is anyone saying it is a virus not the flu?

Get better and feel better!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2018 at 3:11am
Nasty is nasty, irrespective of the name/classification we give the virus. 

Flu itself does kill, but rarely; most 'flu' deaths are from secondary bacterial infections which capitalize on the exhausted post-flu-viral immune system. 

It sounds like this virus is doing flu's dirty work for it.  Hacking and/or persistent coughs, raised glands, ear infections and the like are all classic examples of bacterial secondary infections.  The only good news (for now - until they stop working) is bacterial infections respond to antibiotics.

So whether it is fu, or another virus is unimportant, what matters is it is vicious!  Take some vitamin D and get well soon KiwiMum. 
How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MikeL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2018 at 8:09am
There are more war memorials than pandemic memorials:

New Zealand 1918 Influenza

Synergistic Pneumococcus-Influenza?

New Zealand / Pneumococcus / Influenza
'....There was an increased demand for admissions to adult ICUs due to pneumonia or sepsis over the winter and spring of 2017, coincident with an increase in laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza. The peak was similar to that of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, but it occurred later in the year.'
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2018 at 2:43pm
the cough with runny nose is probabley  post nasal drip,which i suffer,good nasal spray gets it under control,also steam head with Vicks,(i use a plastic bag when i steam works better than cloth over head)

we had something similar at work ,

i have not been infected as yet ,but it knocked one guy out for 2 weeks
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.đź––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2018 at 4:15pm
Our practise nurse said it was viral. The other symptom is sneezing and in the supermarket last week there was a fair amount of sneezing happening. 

I have to say that the depth of the cough has frightened me and I recently went to a talk about the Spanish Flu and the professor giving the talk said how so many of the victims developed a secondary infection of pneumonia and that's what killed them. With this in mind, I took my family for a pneumonia vaccination last week. This jab costs $58 here, so most people don't have it, but we have just in case this comes back in a more vicious form. 

Personally I think it was flu because of the high temperature, but it's a nasty illness. 
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2018 at 4:17pm
What also surprised me was how many of our flu and cold meds we went through. I'm in the process of stocking up again and will increase the amount of stuff we keep. We were going through a box of tissues every day, and plenty of paracetamol, expectorant cough syrup and I found the Otrivine Nasal spray to be a godsend before bedtime, so I'm getting plenty in just in case. 
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 06 2018 at 8:35pm
yes the Otrivine is what I use,
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.đź––

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Diligent Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 08 2018 at 6:31pm
Hi KiwiMum,

Thank-you for sharing this information.

What is getting my attention, number #1 is : The " fever " you have described. I don't like that, I don't like how it sounds.

Secondly, is the deep lung cough, and/or infection.

Those two together can make people really ill.

Any vomiting or diarrhea reported?

Get well now.

Sincerely,
Diligent



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2018 at 1:35am
Hi Diligent, no vomiting or diarrhea for us but the nurse told us that there's a really nasty stomach bug going round, and a lady who works at our supermarket told me today she had it last week, so did her husband. 

The deep cough is what worried me, that's why we got the pneumonia jabs. I'm still coughing occasionally and it's been a month since I got sick. My son is still coughing too, probably worse than me. His neck glands are still up and he still has a sore throat and a cough. It's a really nasty illness. Our cough doesn't seem to be bacterial as it is improving and the stuff coming up isn't coloured. The nurse said it was viral. 
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MikeL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2018 at 8:14am
It seems somewhat crude to reify a New Zealander on this thread, thanking them for contributing to it, while simultaneously ignoring what we have posted about New Zealand. We smell either knowledge envy (villagers throwing rocks at Doctors Without Borders during the ebola crisis) or outright rudeness: the reports we mentioned include professional people readers have never met. By most anyone's estimation, it's like speaking into a black hole. Duh.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Diligent Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2018 at 1:31pm
KiwiMum,

Thank-you for the reply. It sounds like the illness is not worsening. 

I think it is a lingering illness and will start getting better now.

Good thinking on the preventative pneumonia inoculations.

D.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Diligent Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 09 2018 at 1:37pm
MikeL,

Reboot and rethink before posting.

Your post is coming in scrambled and broken making no sense.

Thank-you.

You can do it.

Diligent
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 12 2018 at 4:00pm
An update on this cold: this morning I was talking to our doctor about this cold and she said that the cough was lasting about 6 weeks in many cases and the cold was widespread.
Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote LCfromFL Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2018 at 7:18am
KiwiMum - this sounds exactly like the illness that struck me while on our cruise from NYC to Bermuda in late May. It WAS nasty! I still have a lingering cough that sends me into coughing fits a few times a day.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 15 2018 at 7:30pm
Kiwi Mum I got the Pneumonia Shot and got a virus and still ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. So the shot does not always work. I am going to get the new Pneumonia Shot Prevnar 13 before fall.   I had the 24 shot in 2010. I got the pneumonia in 2015.


Hope you all get better and that not many more get sick. We will watch for this in the states. I am over 65 so this report of this virus strikes terror in my heart.
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