Who's had the H1N1 shot ?

[Ian Robinson]

My mum is in an at risk group , elderly, has other risk factors including a dicky ticker. Her GP has advised to wait until a good sized section of the community has had the jab and the side effects are known.

He reckons H1N1 will kill her, but the side effects could also. So wait.

I've not had the jab, I don't plan to despite being in an at risk group (obese and over 50 yo). Nor has my wife. I'll ask my GP when need my blood pressure tablet script renewed.

I'm inclined to not have the jab unless my GP tells to.

[PCH]

My wife and I and our three kids (11,13 and 15) all had it with absolutely no side effects whatsoever. :thumbsup:

[AdrianF]

My employer is encouraging us to have the jab but I havent taken their advise for the last 7 years so why change now and yes I am in the high risk group (overweight and over 50)

Adrian

[dpastern]

Well, I'm overweight and over 40 (just) so I'm probably in some sort of risk group as well (apart from the normal risks given my weight/height/age combo). I'm will not have this jab, or any other "flu" jab (for theological, ideological and religious reasons).

Dave

[dpastern]

swine flu shot Kev.

Dave

[Waxing_Gibbous]

I've had Sydney Flu, Swine Flu (MK I), Hong Kong Flu and wished I'd died through every one. Have the jab. Serious side effects are rare and are far less lethal than the real thing.
Also; HOPE you get swine flu, because its not as bad as yer regular human type strains - more than 3000 people a year in NSW alone die from "human" flu. I think maybe 10 people all over the country have died from swinefluenza?

[Terry B]

Her GP needs to read his literature a bit better. The H1N1 vaccine is made in the same way as the normal fluvax only with a differnet strain of the virus. The side effect profile is the same.
I (as a GP) have now given ~50 of the vaccines and will continue to suggest all at risk people have it. If your mum catches influenza of any sort she has a significant mortality risk.
As for whether I have had it. No, but I had swine flu in July so there is not much point me having it. I have had a normal fluvax though.

[JethroB76]

:thanks:

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Beastly man!!!!
That's not what I meant at all and you know it!!!!:P
May you be struck with hives!
Every time some animal-based virus makes the rounds people get hysterical and subscribe all sorts of horrors to it.
As I said I've had several nasty strains of flu, and the swine flu MK I was the least nasty.
So I hope you (or anyone here for that matter) doesn't get flu. But if you do, hope its swinish because the main human strains have adapted to us and become worse.

[TrevorW]

Never had one never want one the only manufactured drug I put into my body is grape reinforced water

[mac]

I've had swine flu, so don't need the jab. The flu was pretty nasty, but not a huge amount different from a normal flu (except for the vomiting, etc). Interestingly, many of the people who have died from it were of the younger generations - with no other medical problems.

[Ian Robinson]

Will go and see my GP and ask her ( I need a new script for my bloodpressure medication in then next few weeks so I might as well kill two birds with one stone so to speak) , if she confirms what you say, I'll pass that onto my mum.

My wife and I have been flu free for several years .... we put that down my overdosing us with gallic when I cook the roast legs of lamb. I like my legs of lamb well seasoned.

[citivolus]

I, my son, my sister (an RN), and one of her kids have all gotten H1N1. I would rather have gotten the shot, but it wasn't available in time.

Being in an at risk group, I was on Tamiflu. It made the symptoms a whole lot more bearable, but that first few days were not a party. I did manage to keep from passing it on to my wife and daughter, though.

[Enchilada]

A guy up the road from me had the swine flu. He got rid of the flu in just under a week, but it didn't change his dreadful behaviour though! An H1N1 shot, advice or not, a'int gonna change that. ;)

[marki]

I also had the swine flu and recieved tamiflu as a treatment. It knocked me around a bit and a consequence I keep getting random rashes. Not sure if this was due to the flu or a reaction tamiflu though but it's really getting on my nerves right now. I say if you have the opportunity to get a swine flu shot do so.

Mark

[Craig.a.c]

I think the way the world carried on about swine flu was and still is a joke. How many people have died from it now???????? Look at how the world carried on with the bird flu!!!!! Its all government and media bull poo.

The basic flu that gets around every year kills over 500,000 people world wide every year.

[erick]

I have had the regular 'flu shot for some years now after coming down with my first bout of influenza one year - I said "Never again, thank you".

I'll have the H1N1 shot when I get around to it. Probably early in the new year between the busy times.

[seeker372011]

wife and I took the jab today
no side effects far as I can tell

[mill]

I have had the flu only once in my 49 years of living and people here confuse a cold with the flu very easely.
You know when you have the flu (you will feel cold one moment and hot the other moment) unlike a runny nose that a lot of people here call the flu.

[Calin]

Intersting views about pre-conceptions of the H1N1 vaccine. Very similar to what's expressed at my worplace and I work in Health.

The H1N1 vaccine isn't that different from the regular annual flu shot. I never use to get the annual shot. My GP recommended I get the shot a number of years ago due to asthma I was getting every spring brought on by heyfever. I never got the regular flu shot on account of just being too lazy. Then work offered the regular flu shot free, so I did for the first time two years ago, and again last year. Since then I have had no asthma and very mild to no heyfever symptoms. I also only get one cold a year now. Can't remember the last time I had the flu ... but that was before the flu shots in any case.

I'll go for the H1N1 shot this week, to boost my immunity through summer if the heyfever season decides to start later on account of the weather. I am not concerned about getting H1N1 as such, my wife and daughter got it from a confirmed mutual school friend when they were still confirming cases. Myself and my son seem to have missed the lurgy this time.

The only side-effect I have ever had with the usual shot is a sore injection site on account of the nurse pushing the needle in rather than a proper jab - but she was under pressure to get through as many as possible in under an hour during a work site visit. I would go for a vaccine over a 'swine flu party' any day.

[mac]

The people who usually die from the 'normal flu' are the typical high-risk groups - the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions.

My wife, who works at a hospital, has seen healthy teenagers with no pre-existing medical conditions die from swine flu.

[Terry B]

Swine flu has fortunately not been too bad. It has a low mortality (<1% ) but is very infectious.
Bird flu is not infectious at all as you can only catch it directly from birds. It currently doesn't spread from person to person. It however is a very nasty virus with a mortality of up to 40% even with modern medical treatment.
The original H1N1 virus in 1918 was highly infectious but also had a low mortality. As it spread around the world it reached the midwest of the USA and it mutated. This was almost a year after it first appeared. It's mortailty went from something similar to the current swine flu to a mortality of ~5%. This went on to kill millions of people around the world.
It is not bull poo as you describe. If some unfortunate sole catches both swine flu and bird flu at the same time and the virus is successful in swapping it's DNA we have the potential to have a very infectious disease with a mortality of 40%.
Antiviral drugs are not terribly satisfactory so vaccination to prevent this type of world wide catastrophy is the best prevention.
I wouldn't want 40% of my family to die. Who would you choose?

[BerrieK]

I had the jab a week and a half ago (at work), with the ony side effect being a tender injection site. As a health worker I am in the group highly recommended to have the vaccine.

Yes perhaps the hype for avian flu was much greater than its reported infections here, but the H1N1 virus has seen people infected over a very wide demographic and gepgraphic distribution in Australia. Yes it is a greater risk for those with underlying health problems but it has also been lethal to otherwise previously healthy individuals.

If people choose not to have the vaccine, however, it is a personal choice..... as long as the choice is made sensibly after consideration of accurate clinical information (not media hype or rumour) and of personal theological, ideological and religious reasons (as Dave Pastern states). It may, however, also come down to population health rather than the health of the individual, in the case where an epidemic of a lethal disease occurs.

Kerrie :) :)

[casstony]

I'll wait for next seasons general flu shot since I think our family already had H1N1; the youngest member of the family (6yo) had the worst symptoms with a fever for 6 days - we moderated the fever with panadol and watched for serious complications and he got better by himself. The immune system takes 4-7 days to build the killer T cells needed to kill the virus so I don't like to go to the doc before day 8 if possible.