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Thread: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

  1. #1
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Or when should I start getting worried?
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

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    Oliphaunt Baldwin's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    You're seriously asking how to tell the difference between the flu and an ordinary rhinovirus? I'll assume you're serious.

    1) Do you have a fever?

    2) Do you ache all over? (Not just a little bit; serious, deep ache.)

    3) Do you feel exhausted? (Not just a little tired.)

    If you've got the flu, expect to be out of commission for a solid week at least.

    Here's some info from the CDC.

    Here's some info from the nice folks at the National Health Service, your Commie medical system that took care of me at no charge when I severed my quad muscle in Blackburn.

    Good luck.

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Fever tends to be a big factor. I work at a hospital, and they let us work with patients if we have cold-type symptoms (coughing/sneezing/runny nose) if we wear a mask while working with the patient and if we follow standard hand sanitation procedures. Add a fever to those symptoms? Off to Employee Health with you.

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    Oliphaunt Baldwin's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    So, how are you feeling now?

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    Oliphaunt jali's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    I'll bring you your tea.
    They weren't singing....they were just honking.
    Glee 2009

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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Probably when your kov gets really nasti.

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    Elephant
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Isn't the version of H1N1 that's spreading massively now a bit more mild than the one that was right off killing one in a few hundred people? I thought I heard this on one 24 hour news channel or another.. Or that it had mutated to a less lethal version? I don't know, it was something I overheard while working.

  8. #8
    For whom nothing is written. Oliveloaf's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Does it matter much?

    It's not doing much but annoying people at this point.

    Pandemic sure aren't what they used to be.
    "I won't kill for money, and I won't marry for it. Other than that, I'm open to just about anything."

    -Jim Rockford

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    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    So, is it a bit more severe than man-flu then, I take it? Phew, that's a relief!
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

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    Oliphaunt Baldwin's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    If you had anything approaching severe flu, you wouldn't be posting, so I'm fairly confident you'll be okay.

  11. #11
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    You could try not to sound so disappointed!
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  12. #12
    Oliphaunt Baldwin's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Dude, I don't wish people ill just because I don't like them. How are you feeling?

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    Elephant Myglaren's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    They can usually determine it at the autopsy stage.
    Lightly Seared On The Reality Grill

  14. #14
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Thanks for those reassuring words, Myglaren!
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Quote Originally posted by Oliveloaf
    Does it matter much?

    It's not doing much but annoying people at this point.

    Pandemic sure aren't what they used to be.
    Ya got that right. Yesterday I started reading a book that happened to mention in passing a flu epidemic in 1957 that killed 70,000 Americans. Everyone seems to have forgotten that one; and it sure makes the recent handwringing over H1N1 look like, well, handwringing.

    (Disclaimer of sorts: I've already noticed a few errors of fact in matters directly related to the thesis of the book aforesaid, so I can't place high confidence in his statement about the flu, which has nothing to do with his subject. [Forgive me for not giving a cite now, but the book's upstairs and I don't want to wake up anyone.] But then, I recall that Dad was unable to attend his father's funeral in the fall of 1957 because he was stuck at home tending a sick family. So there may well have been a flu epidemic then.)


    So far as the OP's question goes, don't they have a test for H1N1?

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    Stegodon
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Quote Originally posted by Baldwin
    If you had anything approaching severe flu, you wouldn't be posting, so I'm fairly confident you'll be okay.
    Oh, it's possible. My influenza-infected husband (a few years back) was frequently propped up on the couch, bundled in blankets, typing on his laptop. This was of course between bouts of shivering so hard that I could see him shuddering even through many layers of blankets, or sleeping fitfully.

    BJMoose: They do indeed have a test for the recent 'swine' H1N1 influenza strain.

  17. #17
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold?

    Is there any reliable estimate on the contagion rate yet?
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  18. #18
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold

    Before we write H1N1 off as a dud as a pandemic, let's get through next fall's flu season, what say?

  19. #19
    Oliphaunt Baldwin's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold

    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Before we write H1N1 off as a dud as a pandemic, let's get through next fall's flu season, what say?
    Yeah; thing about flu is it can mutate on a dime. My grandmother's brother died in the 1918 epidemic, which killed more people than WWI; it could happen again. (Well, not to him.)

  20. #20
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold

    Quote Originally posted by Baldwin
    Quote Originally posted by featherlou
    Before we write H1N1 off as a dud as a pandemic, let's get through next fall's flu season, what say?
    Yeah; thing about flu is it can mutate on a dime. My grandmother's brother died in the 1918 epidemic, which killed more people than WWI; it could happen again. (Well, not to him.)
    MADISON, Wis., July 14 (UPI) -- A team of U.S. virologists says the H1N1 flu virus pathogen is more virulent than previously thought.

    Study leader Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison says that in contrast with run-of-the-mill seasonal flu viruses, the H1N1virus, commonly referred to as swine flu, exhibits an ability to infect cells deep in the lungs, where it can cause pneumonia and, in severe cases, death. Seasonal viruses typically infect only cells in the upper respiratory system, Kawaoka says.

    "There is a misunderstanding about this virus," Kawaoka said in a statement. "People think this pathogen may be similar to seasonal influenza. This study shows that is not the case. There is clear evidence the virus is different than seasonal influenza."

    The ability to infect the lungs, a quality frighteningly similar to those of other pandemic viruses such as the Spanish flu in 1918, which killed tens of millions.


    The study, published in the journal Nature, also shows that people born before 1918 harbor antibodies that protect against the new H1N1 virus.
    Source: http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/07/ ... 247624631/

    If it mutates, it may be deja vu all over again.

  21. #21
    Oliphaunt featherlou's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold


  22. #22
    aka ivan the not-quite-as-terrible ivan astikov's avatar
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    Default Re: How do I know if I've got H1N1, or a good old-fashioned cold

    Quote Originally posted by featherlou

    It apparently is mutating.

    "Damn! Do we have enough Tamiflu, gang?"
    To sleep, perchance to experience amygdalocortical activation and prefrontal deactivation.

  23. #23
    For whom nothing is written. Oliveloaf's avatar
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    I want to wrap this one up with a resounding...IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.
    "I won't kill for money, and I won't marry for it. Other than that, I'm open to just about anything."

    -Jim Rockford

  24. #24
    Stegodon Jaglavak's avatar
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    Swine flu is not the big panic.

    The possibility of a readily infectious novel agent (swine flu) swapping genes with a deadly agent sporting a 90% death rate (bird flu) is what's keeping health organizations awake at night all around the world. Worst case, that could lighten the earth by maybe a billion schnooks.

    I plan to not be one of them. As part of that I check this site every day.

    I'm afraid that the current situation with Indonesia is the smoldering fire that will burn us to the ground. Stock up on supplies, folks. The current world situation is a stack of tinder.

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