COVID is making the rounds again

Daily Life, Swiss News and General Topics
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Street wisdom is that fever and body aches are symptoms of the flu, whereas just runny nose and cough are common cold symptoms, loss of smell is specific for covid and a test is easy to do. Why do the kids refuse a test? They are unlikely to suffer badly from covid but they should be aware that passing it on is not good.
When to see a doctor? It is great to have a good relationship with your GP/group practice so you can phone up and get advice. No idea how good Telmed is,

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They donā€™t like it when the test sample stick is stuffed up their nostrils!

Utter wimps.

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Iā€™m not a kid but I hate sticking that thing up my nose. I usually sneeze for minutes ā€¦

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You can get it with the flu jab, but it costs 140 CHF, not cheap.

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For me COVID starts with very frequent sneezing (like 5-6 time in a row every 5 min or so), runny nose (not stuffed) and teary eyes. Very similar to the allergic reaction on something in the air.

Sometimes I or my kids have 3 days of fever and muscle pain without any other symptoms. I assume that this might be flu.

I think, normally you should see a doctor if you donā€™t get better on the 4th day of illness. Or if you have some specific symptoms like ears pain, high fever + very strong throat pain that doesnā€™t become better after you drink some warm liquid (especially not combined with runny nose), persistent dry cough or cough with whistling sound etc.

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I take honey for that, it also helps with the cough

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For me I get that whenever I take a Covid test.

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If itā€™s a strep throat, you need antibiotics. But you wonā€™t feel much better even after tea with honey anyway. Thatā€™s one of the rough criteria how to distinguish it from the common cold. Also the absence of any symptoms in the nose and high fever.

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I take the honey neat, not with tea.

Only 10% of adult sore throats are strep throat, around a third in children so anyway in the minority.
I avoid taking antibiotics so have not taken any for at least ten years.

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That could be flu though and not a bacterial throat infection.

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well, Iā€™ve just had my dose of natural immunization, fighting the virus for ~1.5 week, COVID or not, didnā€™t test

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A Mayo Clinic article on the benefit of honey for coughs and sore throats

Also from the US National institute of Health

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Thatā€™s why you need a doctor. If it is a doubtful case, the doctor can do an express strep test.

My teenage daughter had a strep throat last year after not having it for 10 years. I was able to recognize it immediately just looking in her throat with a flashlight.

Your suggestion to avoid antibiotics in case of strep throat is very dangerous. I hope that others will not follow it and will see a doctor and follow their recommendation.

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The throat pain is much stronger in case of strep throat, almost unbearable. Itā€™s usually the worst symptom. Flu is mostly about muscle pain.

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ā€œFrankensteinā€ is coming.

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Based on the article, itā€™s already here. However to me there donā€™t seem to be more people sick than in a ā€œnormalā€ autumnal cycle of sniffles, sneezes etc. The old rules still apply: wash your hands, cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze and donā€™t touch your face. :slightly_smiling_face:

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And an FYI, both the COVID and flu jabs are available now.

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I had Covid 3 weeks ago, trust me it is already here.

Lots of cases in the UK also. Maybe some new variants are not as debilitating as it once was, but I would have preferred not to have it.

Kind regards

Ian

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My sister caught something on her recent holiday in the French Alsace, 9 out of 20 on the trip went down with it. Unfortunately she then came to Basel for the weekend, we all flew to Edinburgh on the Monday and my OH went down with it on the Wednesday. I followed on the Sunday. It was absolutely awful, started with a throat full of razor blades.
We should have flown back to Basel last Thursday but werenā€™t well enough to travel so we ended up booking flights for Monday.

I wasnā€™t as badly affected as the other 2, OH resorted to seeing a doctor yesterday as his breathing wasnā€™t good and our insurers advised him to get a blood test done in case it was something bacterial (tests were negative, but his oxygen level was low so heā€™s been prescribed 2 inhalers, a nasal spray and a cough med).

A pain in the neck as we had a list of things to sort out at our house in Scotland but nothing got done as we spent half the time in bed. It also cost us Ā£250 in flights :cry:

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