Flu misery, but it could have been worse
I usually don’t run through my yearly allowance of five sick days here at China Daily USA, but I managed to knock them all out in one go last week — in January no less. Why? Because like many people this winter, I got flu. I don’t think I’ve ever had a single illness that was so debilitating for so many days in a row (about nine). Usually, the few times over the years that I’ve had flu symptoms there would be two bad days and then some gradual improvement.
This time, I was at home with the chills watching old movies and TV shows (I recommend The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and reading obsessively about how dangerous this flu season was.
I would daily drink a concoction of green tea, honey, lemon, ginger and turmeric. It really didn’t seem to do anything, but then nor did the overpriced over-thecounter remedies.
When you’re healthy and you hear all the TV news reports about the flu, you tend to view them as background noise, such as weather reports.
But what was really scary about some of the news stories I was watching was how many young, vibrant, previously healthy people across the United States have succumbed to the nasty virus.
Thirty-seven children have died in the US of flu-related illnesses, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That usually happens when pneumonia sets into the lungs, which can lead to sepsis, septic shock and eventually organ failure.
The parents are probably left reeling, thinking that all their children had was a bad cold — even if it were the flu, it’s not supposed to kill you.
It’s not that the parents of those children didn’t address their illnesses; many of them took their kids to see a doctor who prescribed medication. Many made a second trip when things didn’t get better. Finally, the third trip, which was usually the last, was to the hospital.
I’ve gotten flu shots intermittently over the years, but like a lot of people, this season I had a roll-the-dice attitude. And there is a particular strain (H3N2) going around that disproportionately affects baby boomers, of which I am one.
“Baby boomers have higher rates (of hospitalization) than their grandchildren right now,” Dan Jernigan, CDC influenza division director, said recently.
This isn’t just a thing in New York, which has to be the US city where you come into contact with the most people incidentally. Influenza has been epidemic in 49 US states, sparing Hawaii. (How miserable would it be to have the flu there).
Flu has been pervasive in China, too, this winter; in fact, two of my colleagues based in Beijing already have written about their illnesses.
One, like me, wrote about the mistake of not getting a flu shot. Another explained the efforts of his wife to treat him with traditional Chinese remedies of hot water and light food.
In Beijing, the city’s health commission reported 9,500 cases of flu the first week of 2018 — a 20 percent year-onyear increase.
What’s that old saying? If you treat a cold, it lasts seven days. If you don’t treat a cold, it lasts seven days.
I would settle for the flu sticking to that.
Contact the writer at williamhennelly@ chinadaily.usa.com