CNN Doc catches H1N1 Flu in Afghanistan..

[ddeclue]

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/23/i-went-to-afghanistan-and-all-i-got-was-h1n1/

I went to Afghanistan and all I got was H1N1
Posted: 09:51 AM ET
By Dr. Sanjay Gupta
CNN Chief Medical Correspondent

It started as a cough. It wasn’t the kind of cough where something is temporarily stuck in your throat. It wasn’t the kind of cough where simply clearing your throat would’ve been adequate. This was the kind of cough that hurts when you do it. A stinging pain that makes you wince and guard and hope that you don’t have to cough again any time soon. I thought I might have a fever, but of course, I was in the middle of covering a war in Afghanistan, and the conditions were… well, hot. So, maybe it was that. Problem was, the next day I wasn’t feeling any better – in fact, I was worse. I woke up in my dusty desert tent and tried to step out of my sleeping bag. Two steps later, I almost hit the deck. Incoming. Except this wasn’t due to any sirens going off, this was due to my own body simply being unable to hold myself up. I was lightheaded and freezing cold – even though it was over 100 degrees outside at that early hour of the morning.


Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who contracted H1N1 in Afghanistan, receives treatment.
I was nauseated and my entire body hurt. I tried to explain away my symptoms with lots of different excuses. You don’t sleep much while covering a war. My bulletproof jacket didn’t fit perfectly and was very heavy. There was a lot of dust and dirt, and maybe I had what the Marines referred to as the Kandahar Krud. It turned out to be none of those things.

....

[lapfog_1]

1. H1N1 is now the dominant form of flu worldwide

if you come down with flu like symptoms, you should now assume H1N1.

Not that there is anything specific you should do, other than to stay hydrated and, as much as possible, isolated.

[ddeclue]

2. Maybe it's what I've got..

I've been hacking for the better part of a month now..

The first week was really bad and I took a day off from work (unpaid :( )- I'm feeling better but still it's rather irritating.

[lapfog_1]

5. Apparently, the real danger from H1N1 is that you can

develop pneumonia. And it's not just the elderly or children that get it, mostly it's adults under the age of 55 that develop complications and die from it. Other than that, it's the flu (at least, so far).

[quiller4]

9. Actually, those developing pneumonia have been 20-35 and pregnant,

any age but suffering an underlying heart condition. There have been only 5 deaths that don't fall into one of those catergories although the underlying heart problem was only discovered in a number of patients post mortem.

[Ian David]

3. If you hang around with pigs, you can catch swine flu...

"Oink! Oink!"

[Jane Austin]

4. A picture on the inside of the second section of the Austin paper yesterday

showed the tents they are having to put up outside the emergency roon at the Dell Children's Hospital here.

Seems that over 300 very young and infant kids are showing up at the hospital with H1N1 EVERY DAY.

That seems to me to be a very serious situation that isn't getting as much attention as it should.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. That is a serious situation indeed

[Jane Austin]

7. Here's the link to the Austin story.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/22/0922swineflu.html

[KoKo]

8. Dr. Gupta talking up his Big Pharma "Portfolio..including h1n1 Flu Vaccines

that he must have avoided while he's still pushing the stocks.... :eyes:

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

12. Kind of hard for him to take something that just got approved last week.

[question everything]

10. And... is back to normal now

From CNN:

In case you are curious, there wasn’t much the doctors could really do for me. Some Tylenol and a sinus decongestant (the same my wife would’ve given me). We also got IV fluids, given our inability to keep anything down. Within a couple days, I felt a lot better, and a few days after that – I was back to normal. It was a lot like… the flu – with a different name. A lot of people will get the exact symptoms I described above, and for most people, it will simply mean a few miserable days, hopefully spent in your home – and not in a war zone.

http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/23/i-went-to-afghanistan-and-all-i-got-was-h1n1/

[mzmolly]

11. Probably one of the worst places to have the flu considering the lack of humidity?

YIKES!

[timeforpeace]

13. Dude, man up. It's no social crisis, just another tricky day for you.