
How my daughter died from a simple case of flu - tonyztan
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/02/health/unseen-enemy-deadly-influenza-epidemic-gwen-zwanziger/
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PhantomGremlin
People are missing the point. There are multiple comments here that say:

 _Is it normal to wait that long to go to a doctor in the US?_

and

 _I never understood why the US didn 't have more walk in clinics._

But she _did_ go to the doctor. Directly from the article: _When they returned
home, she walked in through the back door and said the visit to the doctor was
a waste of time. The doctor just said it was the flu and to "let it run its
course."_

There are two big issues: 1) it's hard do diagnose exactly how serious any
particular case of the flu is, and 2) she wasn't vaccinated

Of course, as the article mentions, vaccination isn't a sure thing. That's why
herd immunity is so important. That's why anti-vaccination nutcase celebrities
are so dangerous.

~~~
fratty12345
herd immunity is a double edged sword though, having people immune to a
specific disease does make you less likely to catch it. but because of herd
immunity, you never encountered the disease, thus when you do get it, usually
later in life, its usually more dangerous for you to have the disease, as
symptoms tend to be more severe,possibly deadly. to give an example,
MUMPS,RUBELLA, ditpheria, measles, are much more dangerous than when there was
little to no vaccinations to it, adults are the highest risk of death from it,
while children usually have mild symptoms. Chickenpox is one of those disease
you get as a kid, and possible shingles later in life, but with vaccination,
now adults are getting its severe and can be deadly, and shingles is becoming
more common in young people.

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tslug
"The flu destroyed her organs. She didn't even know it."

Wait, what kind of flu was this, Ebola Zaire? Since when does influenza
destroy organs?

Taking the flu seriously is definitely advisable, but something sounds amiss
here.

~~~
terminado
Yeah, I wish there was a little more color on the details of what the flu
really did, why it was so dangerous in this instance, and if it was possible
to identify which form of flu was responsible.

When a story like this is pushed, and relevant details are excluded, one might
sense an agenda. Maybe there are reasons to exclude details, regarding medical
privacy, but without them, the article is reduced to "flu dangerous, can
kill."

For example, does one flu shot inoculate for all flus? If not, then which flu
shots were available, and would any of those flu shots have helped at all in
this situation? How can we draw accurate conclusions without complete
information?

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fratty12345
the article has inclompete details, i believe your right, they just wanted to
title it "flue kills"

the one that raised a red flag, that it destroyed the organs, i never heard of
a flu doing that. I was suspecting either she never had the flu, or she rarely
had it to make the flu more dangerous for her, the mom even said she was never
vaccinated for it. she could also had a comorbid condition, like
immunosuppression, which the flu can kill her, or she had a secondary
bacterial infection. there is no flu shot that will vaccinate for all flus,
otherwise we dont need to keep making new ones every year, and there is many
strains, that the vaccines might not work against. Flu viruses evolves way to
fast to be a perfect vaccine, similar to how there is no HIV vaccine, it
mutates to rapidly.

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ricardobeat
Wednesday - Sunday + 34h == ~7 days. Is it normal to wait that long to go to a
doctor in the US? I'd be rushing by the third day, no simple flu has ever kept
anyone I know down for over two days. Not to blame anyone, just curious.

~~~
markwaldron
It's extremely common in the US. I grew up poor and there were many times I
was sick, sometimes even severely, and never went to the doctors. Even now I
know people who are making 6 figure salaries and choose not to go to the
doctors because it's just so expensive. They hedge their bets taking high
deductible insurances, or sometimes going without, so they just avoid going to
the doctors until they have no choice.

~~~
fratty12345
1 REASON is the cost, even with insurance, theres a limit how much you can use
the service, if its over the preniums or deductible, the insurance can refuse
to pay for anything, insurance can also outright refuse to pay for services,
even if its affordable to them, thier goal is to earn profit, not deduct from
it. the 2nd reason is probably the major one, is about the foolish thing of
keeping a clean image. They dont want to show "weakness" by going to the
doctors so much, they are making stuff up, or the doctor will say "its
nothing"

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js2
Warning: auto-playing video advertisement.

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suby
Absolutely terrible. I suppose the lesson here is to make sure your kids get a
flu shot.

~~~
dragonwriter
That's part, but not all. Flu shots are far from perfect and are based on
imperfect predictions of which strains would be dominant.

We've got an in office test and anti-virals that are effective in,
respectively, identifying and reducing the intensity and duration of flu
infections. But you've got to see the doctor for a definitive diagnosis and
prescription very shortly after symptoms appear for Tamiflu to be effective.

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watertom
Visiting the doctor for the flu is a useless endeavor. Unless you get wheeled
in, they are going to tell you that you have the flu and all that they can do
is let it run it's course.

Of course a big dose of anti-oxidants would knock out the flu PDQ, just like
the just discovered cure for Sepsis, intravenous Sodium Ascorbate (Vitamin C).
Doctors were curing polio in the 40's with intravenous Vitamin C, and measles,
and Chicken Pox.

Eventually Linus Pauling will be vindicated and when he is vindicated he
should get another Nobel Prize.

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j7ake
Influenza kills half a million people a year. Don't take it lightly.

