Pigs on the wing: running swine flu (H1N1) thread

TamiFlu is a fantastic drug, be it seasonal flu or H1N1. It's in very short supply, so many doctors are reluctant to prescribe it, lest their patients expose a bunch of other people while trying to find it. I had to go to six pharmacies before finding it at Walgreen's, and even then the pharmacist had to make a "compound" of it (whatever the hell that meant). All I know is that it worked for my daughter as it had in the past.

As for the vaccine, there's another consideration: some people can't get it if they have an egg allergy (like my daughter). Fortunately, there are no such issues with TamiFlu.

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but I also think there's a misconception about the flu, or people commonly misuse the term. I don't know if I've ever had the real "flu." The flu isn't a stomach thing and usually not a nasal congestion thing either, but when people get sick with those symptoms, they'll say they have the flu. It's probably not really the flu. I was tested for Influenza A for the first time ever last year, and really only because of the H1N1 scare.

Good idea on the thread, Bob. Got a 15-month old with some respiratory issues, so we're on high alert, and it's reassuring to hear people who've been through this. My sister's son has H1N1 and had a 105.5 temp yesterday. I think he's doing better after the TamiFlu.

I'm hoping my daughter gets the booster shot before she comes into contact with this. Anyone got any expertise on what, if any, protection the first shot provides for those that also need the booster?

 

Well, ES, it's half protection. Literally. Half the chance of getting it, half the symptoms. Your body will produce half the antibodies as compared to having a full shot.

 

The reason you can't have the shot with an egg allergy is because the virus is grown in eggs. That's what's taken the H1N1 so long -- it grew much slower than expected. Plus, the vaccine manufacturers are also making the seasonal vaccine at the same time. There are years the seasonal vaccine is a slow grower, and that's without another outbreak to deal with.

And, yeah, as OTR said, while for most of us, getting the seasonal flu shot is a matter of "convenience," though it's mighty inconvenient if your work schedule is messed up because you have to take care of sick kids, or you yourself are sick and don't get sick days (a big reason why so many people with H1N1 are going to work -- especially in restaurants). But, yeah, particularly for pregnant women and kids younger than 17, there's a serious, serious risk for harm, like you're an 80-year-old who catches seasonal flu.

To reference earlier about the "compound" -- because of a shortage of children's Tamiflu, pharmacists have been instructed to break up the capsules of adult Tamiflu and mix it with the flavored liquid you can buy to make the medicine test better. My 4-year-old didn't get Tamiflu because her symptoms weren't too bad. My 12-year-old son got it because he's 12, his symptoms were bad, and he's big enough (larger than 85 pounds) to get the adult dose.

 

Thanks for the clarification. The pharmacist told me that she needed to get the doctor's approval before mixing the compound since it technically didn't match the scrip. At that point, I didn't care what they needed to do as long as we ended up with the medication. My daughter said the compound tasted like crap, but better to force down a few drops of a foul-tasting liquid than having to battle pneumonia.