Swine flu hits hard, early — claims 11 more kids (More detailed than most articles)

Associated Press ^ | Oct 16, 2009 | LAURAN NEERGAARD

[Reaganwuzthebest]

The problem is the body’s reaction to it. People with strong immune systems have more trouble with it because the immune system overreacts.

That's true and why it's recommended to take Vitamin D3. It not only maintains a strong immune system but keeps it from overreacting.

[MsLady]

Good to hear your doing good, except the tired part. Get plenty of rest and don’t forget to drink plenty of liquids. I can’t take large doses of D at once. Makes me feel crappy. It has that effect on some people. I can take 2-4000 a day and I’m ok. I also have a vitamin D lamp, but, forget to use it a lot of the time. Fat lot of good that’s gonna do me.

[bw17]

Andy, with all due respect, I have no idea what you talking about.

This flu is killing people with strong immune systems, and one of the theories floating around as to why this is happening is the cytokines storm theory. The body’s own immune system actually exacerbates the pulmonary complications. The debate in the medical community right now is whether or not a vaccination will even help, and whether or not the risks of not getting the vaccine outweigh the risks for neurological damage caused by the vaccination itself.

I am a dentist, and my best friend is a physician who is the President of his county’s medical society, and neither if us (nor our families) will be getting the H1N1 flu vaccination.

[AndyJackson]

We are in agreement, and I am sorry if I seem obtuse. I am deploring, not your comments, but a viewpoint that I see all too prevalent here on free republic, a view which seems to hold that medical science, including public health, is a socialist plot, rather than the culmination of thousands of years of the genius of man trying to improve the human condition, and that has over the last 200 years dramatically improved life expectancies and the quality of the life over that time.

Legitimate informed professional debates over the efficacy of the H1N1 vaccine are what I would hope would happen. The conspiracy theorizing that substitutes for that here on FR I find depressing and angering.

[MarMema]

They die from pneumocystis carinii, a bacterial infection/invasion of the lungs, we normally call it pneumonia.

It's a fungus, and very rare.

[MarMema]

I just got over it myself and it mostly seems to demand a ton of rest.

[bw17]

Trust me. I see it first hand with the debate over water fluoridation, and the use of fluoride dentifrices.

I’m a firm believer in the use of fluoride, but I understand the concern coming from folks on the other side of the debate. However, where fluoride is different from the flu vaccination is that fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral present in wells across many areas of the country. That’s how the health community discovered its benefits...from observing the low caries rate in certain communities that had naturally occurring fluoride.

I would hope that the medical research community would spend as much time and money to find a way to suppress the hyper-reactive cytokine response in infected, hospitalized individuals as they do in developing a vaccine that may or may not be affective. Of course, here’s where the cynic in me comes out. It’s more profitable to sell tens of millions of doses of vaccine, than it is to sell a few hundred thousand doses of a cytokine-suppression medication that is given only to the deathly ill.

[luckystarmom]

There were 200 out of 1200 kids out sick at my son’s private Christian high school. No illegals there.

[djf]

You’re right. I’m basically still completely exhausted, even though I was pretty much in bed for four days, I never really got any rest. So for the next day or three, I’ll eat like a horse and sleep like a log.
Also didn’t get any exercise, maybe I’ll climb on my stairstepper tonight.. the gal at the pharmacy today said she talked to another guy yesterday who had it and he said the worst part of it was that he basically hurt everywhere, I hurt also, but for me the congestion/sinuses/fever was the worst part.
re: fungus, you are also correct type-wise, not sure if it’s that rare compared to the bacterial type.

[zerosix]

Glad to hear it. In our area, they are closing schools due to "flu symptoms." After reporting this "fact" then the announcer comes back and says, "What we don't want to do is .... start a panic!!!"

Huh? Sounds like with any kind of cold, cough, sniffles (which we've got plenty of) parents are truly scared to death, especially when the news reports the numbers of children dying.

My question is -- where's the vaunted vaccine? Why did they alert people to the "deadly virus" claim that there would be "plenty of vaccine available to affected groups" then give what they have to anyone? Our local drug store is having "flu vaccination days." This cannot be a good use if anyone walking into our grocery and drug store can simply stop by the table and get the vaccine. Won't the supplies used up just when we need them the most?

[luckystarmom]

My kids are high risk (epilepsy & asthma), swine flu is rampant at their school, and we don’t have the shot form of the vaccine available in our area and won’t have it for a few more weeks.

I’m wondering if my daughters already had H1N1. One of them was sick over the summer: sore throat, tired, and then went to her asthma. She never went to the doctor.

The other one was very tired, headache, low grade fever, then a stuffy nose and a small cough. I took her to the doctor, and she said it was just a cold, but they never tested my daughter.

I’ve heard of my kids’ friends having a horrible time with this flu, and some having very mild cases.