I have been in ICU in July with pneumonia brought on by a virus due to lungs not functioning properly. Fortunately my doctor spotted the signs of it coming on when I was seeing him for a routind check up about something else and had an ambulance take me straight from the surgery. I had been taken in a number of times previously with lung problems caused by infections so he knew what was coming. Specialist at hospital said I was lucky, another couple of hours and it might have gone too far. These things carried on regularly 5 or 6 times a year for 5 years then stopped. Haven't been in for 3 years. No one knows why it cleared up. The only explanation they think is a fortuitous combination of medication for other things combined to work.
Lost my dad to pneumonia 26 years ago. Brought on by heart failure. My grandad suffered from it and so do I. Fortunately they pick it up now and medication not available then has improved things considerably.
My Mother was in Hospital with other issues and released with a clean bill of health on the Tuesday...Rushed back in on the Thursday and the Pneumonia was too far advanced!! As you say it's a thin line between safety and certain death,glad to hear your specialist is on the ball
'an effective vaccine every year to combat it ' ? Really. How come people still die from it ? Also if the vaccine is so effective how come it isn't compulsory for everyone ? It's not about a fair comparison either. If you die , you die, flu or covid, your still dead.
The facts are that thousands still die from flu every year, far more then are dying from this 'new variant of covid' . When did you last see the latest figures from people dying who have had flu the last 28 days dominating the main news channels 24/7 ? When did you ever ?
Pneumonia nearly had me 25 yrs back, was in HRI for 18 days, three of them on induced coma so I could breath. They told our lass to get the family in. Luckily I pulled through and been ok with it since. I had the pneumonia jab for the first time year.
The flu deaths have gone down due to lockdown reducing transmission. They are expecting an increase in the future due to immunity not building up. A lot of people who died from pneumonia due to covid would have died from pneumonia if they had contracted flu. Even with flu deaths are separated into dying because of influenza and dying of influenza and pneumonia. Depends which department is after the most funding.According to my cousin who ran a ward dealing with lung ailments at the main Manchester Hospital for a few years. The one thing she did after working there for only a short while was stop smoking. Around 50% of the population smoked then but over 90% of the patients in that ward were smokers. Always amazed her how many doctors would deal with these people and then go have a cig when they ,had a spare moment.
Wouldn't a simple answer be to create a quick and simple test that you could do yourself that would flag up a few of the transmissible diseases, and use that as proof you're 'clean' if/when challenged, and also help catch the infections early?
If flu was a new virus and we didn't have an effective vaccine programme against it, we'd be locked down. No doubt about that. But we have tools in our arsenal to combat it and its different forms each year. To compare a decades old illness to one less than two years old in the UK is a fallacy. We may now have the tools to help stop Covid, but we cannot yet be certain when it comes to new variants.
My next door neighbour had it before I did and when she asked about it when she had her flu jab this year she was told you don't need another one. Will have to check next time I go to the surgery.
