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https://www.thestar.com/life/health...agging_symptoms_long_after_h1n1_subsides.html
thestar.com
Covid-19 Swine flu fallout: many suffer nagging symptoms long after H1N1 subsides
MMBy Michael MacDonaldThe Canadian PressMon., March 29, 2010timer3 min. read
5-6 minutes
HALIFAX, N.S. - Marga Cugnet thought she knew what she was in for when she came down with swine flu last October.
But the health administrator from Weyburn, Sask., said she was annoyed and somewhat dejected when the potent H1N1 virus left her with lingering symptoms that did not let up until earlier this month.
That’s five months of suffering through a hacking, post-flu cough and bouts of fatigue.
“I never went anywhere without having a bag of cough drops with me because I would just get into a coughing spell that wouldn’t stop,” said Cugnet, the 56-year-old vice-president of primary health with the Sun Country Health Region.
“I knew it could take months to go away, but I didn’t think it would last that long.”
Even though the global pandemic ceased making headlines weeks ago, the impact of the virus remains fresh in the minds of many Canadians who are just getting over an ailment that delivered a lasting one-two punch.
The Public Health Agency of Canada didn’t keep records on the number of Canadians who contracted mild cases of H1N1, mainly because most of them simply stayed home while recovering.
But Dr. Michael Gardam of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion says blood tests on a sample group in that province suggested that just under 10 per cent of the population was infected in the first wave.
“The second wave was two to three times larger than the first wave, so 30 per cent total is likely reasonable,” said Gardam, the agency’s director of infectious diseases prevention and control.
These numbers are similar to estimates from other developed countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, he said.
Since April 2009, when the first cases were identified in North America, the Public Health Agency of Canada says 424 Canadians died after contracting the virus and another 8,221 have been hospitalized — 1,472 of them admitted to intensive care.
The infection rate peaked in early November, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest H1N1 kept tormenting the country well into 2010.
“Sometimes it takes weeks to a couple of months for people to get ... back on their feet,” said Gardam.
The vast majority of those infected with H1N1 endure what the medical community describes as “mild” symptoms lasting for about a week to 10 days, including a fever, chills, headache, sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches and general tiredness.
thestar.com
MMBy Michael MacDonaldThe Canadian PressMon., March 29, 2010timer3 min. read
5-6 minutes
HALIFAX, N.S. - Marga Cugnet thought she knew what she was in for when she came down with swine flu last October.
But the health administrator from Weyburn, Sask., said she was annoyed and somewhat dejected when the potent H1N1 virus left her with lingering symptoms that did not let up until earlier this month.
That’s five months of suffering through a hacking, post-flu cough and bouts of fatigue.
“I never went anywhere without having a bag of cough drops with me because I would just get into a coughing spell that wouldn’t stop,” said Cugnet, the 56-year-old vice-president of primary health with the Sun Country Health Region.
“I knew it could take months to go away, but I didn’t think it would last that long.”
Even though the global pandemic ceased making headlines weeks ago, the impact of the virus remains fresh in the minds of many Canadians who are just getting over an ailment that delivered a lasting one-two punch.
The Public Health Agency of Canada didn’t keep records on the number of Canadians who contracted mild cases of H1N1, mainly because most of them simply stayed home while recovering.
But Dr. Michael Gardam of the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion says blood tests on a sample group in that province suggested that just under 10 per cent of the population was infected in the first wave.
“The second wave was two to three times larger than the first wave, so 30 per cent total is likely reasonable,” said Gardam, the agency’s director of infectious diseases prevention and control.
These numbers are similar to estimates from other developed countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, he said.
Since April 2009, when the first cases were identified in North America, the Public Health Agency of Canada says 424 Canadians died after contracting the virus and another 8,221 have been hospitalized — 1,472 of them admitted to intensive care.
The infection rate peaked in early November, but there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest H1N1 kept tormenting the country well into 2010.
“Sometimes it takes weeks to a couple of months for people to get ... back on their feet,” said Gardam.
The vast majority of those infected with H1N1 endure what the medical community describes as “mild” symptoms lasting for about a week to 10 days, including a fever, chills, headache, sore throat, runny nose, muscle aches and general tiredness.
