Beware of the "Influenza Like Illness (ILI)" numbers being reported.

I'm sure all of you have heard about how bad the flu is this year, about how hospitals are flooded and that there are tons of cases.

However, the numbers the media is reporting are for "influenza like illnesses", not actual cases of influenza. What is an "influenza like illness"...basically anything.

en.wikipedia.org...

Influenza-like illness (ILI), also known as acute respiratory infection (ARI) and flu-like syndrome/symptoms, is a medical diagnosis of possible influenza or other illness causing a set of common symptoms. Here, SARI refers to Severe Acute Respiratory Infection.

Symptoms commonly include fever, shivering, chills, malaise, dry cough, loss of appetite, body aches and nausea, typically in connection with a sudden onset of illness.[

So the media keeps reporting these ILI numbers and freaking everyone the hell out. So more and more people go to the hospitals when they get a cough, so the ILI numbers keep going up and up.

Last week, out of all the ILI reported illnesses, 31% tested positive for influenza. And this is coming straight from the CDC, they track influenza and ILI. Here is the website, it has lots of good information.

www.cdc.gov...

One thing you will see is that this year really isn't any worse than any other year, it is just peeking earlier.

So just a little something to be aware of, "Influenza Like Illness" is not the flu, and these are the numbers the media seems to be hyping up.

reply to post by xedocodex


Tell that to all the people who have been infected with this year's virus! Tell them it's nothing when they couldn't shake the bug for two weeks. Tell that to the family of this MN girl who died a couple of nights ago from the flu!

2nd teen dies in MN from flu

There's a very dangerous game being played here.

TextMany advocates of vaccine safety often wonder why there’s such a push on mandating vaccines for everyone, especially children as young as newborns. Well, there may be a method to Uncle Sam’s bureaucratic madness; it’s to be found in taxes placed on vaccines.

www.activistpost.com...

TextIn the weeks leading up to the Christmas 2012 holidays, some members of Congress got antsy about making certain the push to have everyone vaccinated against the flu would also entitle Uncle Sam to a special tax on each flu shot.

Two bills were introduced into Congress: H.R. 6687 in the House of Representatives and S.3716 in the Senate. The House bill stated it was introduced To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to include vaccines against seasonal influenza within the definition of taxable vaccines.

Even though the House bill died in committee at the end of the 112th Congress, the Senate version was reintroduced January 2, 2013 by Democrat Max Baucus and Republican Orrin Hatch.

The new bill was passed by unanimous consent in the Senate and immediately sent to the House for passage. A real fast track piece of legislation, I’d say. A sleeper too, that not many people know about.

Good Post - S&F

Tomorrow will be day four of some cruddy virus I have. flu or flu like illness, I don't care. I just want it to go away. I haven't been hit this hard in years. Just when I feel like I'm gonna get better, I go back down. Whatever this is is horrible! I really feel for anyone getting it this go round.



I did get a flu shot this year. So either I caught something not in the vaccine, or I was gonna get even sicker and I'm just feeling a little less than I would have. And that thought scares me beacause this already feels terrible.

Double post. Apologies.

Interesting...well being as a I work in a hospital and we are a very high census I will be sure to tell all the patients in the ED that they are not suffering with the flu and I am sure it will make them feel better.

Originally posted by Rezlooper
reply to post by xedocodex

 

Tell that to all the people who have been infected with this year's virus! Tell them it's nothing when they couldn't shake the bug for two weeks. Tell that to the family of this MN girl who died a couple of nights ago from the flu!

2nd teen dies in MN from flu

Tell them what? That the media is reporting inflated numbers?

Read the OP again, I said nothing about the seriousness of the strain of influenza going around, only that it is being overblown by the media as far as numbers.

Originally posted by opethPA
Interesting...well being as a I work in a hospital and we are a very high census I will be sure to tell all the patients in the ED that they are not suffering with the flu and I am sure it will make them feel better.

So you are saying every single person coming into the ED with flu like symptoms in fact have the flu?

I don't get the hostility in the responses here, not everyone that is sick has influenza. But the CDC reports numbers of those with "influenza like illness", and only a fraction of those actually have the influenza virus.

It doesn't mean they aren't sick, it doesn't mean their illness isn't serious, it only means that not all those people have influenza.

I swear, some people want to just argue about anything.

Originally posted by xedocodex

Originally posted by Rezlooper
reply to post by xedocodex

 

Tell that to all the people who have been infected with this year's virus! Tell them it's nothing when they couldn't shake the bug for two weeks. Tell that to the family of this MN girl who died a couple of nights ago from the flu!

2nd teen dies in MN from flu

Tell them what? That the media is reporting inflated numbers?

Read the OP again, I said nothing about the seriousness of the strain of influenza going around, only that it is being overblown by the media as far as numbers.

If anything I think the media is downplaying it. There was a lot more media coverage in 2009 when we had the swine flu scare that turned out to be nothing. Now we actually have something where healthy teenagers are dying, and we don't have a lot of coverage of that.

Originally posted by xedocodex

Originally posted by opethPA
Interesting...well being as a I work in a hospital and we are a very high census I will be sure to tell all the patients in the ED that they are not suffering with the flu and I am sure it will make them feel better.

So you are saying every single person coming into the ED with flu like symptoms in fact have the flu?

I don't get the hostility in the responses here, not everyone that is sick has influenza. But the CDC reports numbers of those with "influenza like illness", and only a fraction of those actually have the influenza virus.

It doesn't mean they aren't sick, it doesn't mean their illness isn't serious, it only means that not all those people have influenza.

I swear, some people want to just argue about anything.

Except nothing I said was hostile nor did I take anything you said as hostile.
Your statement based on your opinion is that the flu situation is being overblown.
My statement based on my opinion is that it is not .

Ia/b cause the seasonal flu every year. That's not opinion, that's fact. I would much rather have the CDC inflating numbers so people take precautions to not spread it vs saying" yah a few people are sick dont worry about it"

Sorry if I have a different opinion then you but I thought ATS was about finding the truth which requires both sides of an equation.

reply to post by Rezlooper

you're not going to see/hear much about them either ... they were vaccinated

notice, there is no mention as to which form of the vaccine they received either
the ohso popular mist contains live virus and they wouldn't want that info or correlation spreading around toooo fast ... gotta get all those tax credits first, ya know ?

OP, thanks for bringing the inflated reports to our attention, some of us do appreciate it
while any death from the flu should be news, they can't have ppl asking too many questions.

@ anyone suffering symptoms ... use some onion and be well.

Originally posted by xedocodex
One thing you will see is that this year really isn't any worse than any other year, it is just peeking earlier.

So just a little something to be aware of, "Influenza Like Illness" is not the flu, and these are the numbers the media seems to be hyping up.

It is "peaking" not peeking.

This pretty much sums up how all the wannabe conspiracy theorists have no clue what they are talking about and don't bother to do any research on a topic before posting it, to garner attention.

The flu season started a full month early, and the cases are DOUBLE of what they were this time last year, and no, the season hasn't even peaked yet.

So no, the numbers are not hyped up.

Whether the illnesses are actually the flu or not is neither here nor there. They cause problems for vulnerable populations, they cause a great loss in productivity, and clog up the hospitals.

And the hospitals are getting overwhelmed.

The methods to try to keep from getting the flu are the same for any ili.

Originally posted by Honor93
@ anyone suffering symptoms ... use some onion and be well.

That's funny ..I will make sure to relay that one at work tomorrow... I bet it will make the many sick people feel better..

reply to post by Rezlooper


How many people die every single year from the Flu in the US?

Sorry, Influenza is deadly. You start squirting out both ends and don't get enough fluids? You die. You come down with the Flu, recover a bit, catch a secondary infection and don't get treated for it in time? Your dead.

The actual number is somewhere between 3000 and 49,000, according to the CDC:

www.cdc.gov...

All death is a personal tragedy for someone, but in the aggregate: the Flu kills tens of thousands of people every single year.

My wife and I had the damn thing for over 10 days now...heavy coughing and congestion in the chest, sore joints and weakness...it sucks...

Both of us had flu shots and I had about 8 shots more since I went to Afghanistan for a month back in October. Both of us are very healthy so we can handle it well, but I can see how this would affect older people....

reply to post by xedocodex


Basically what they are saying is that it is possible unconfirmed cases of the flu. Tamiflu and Relenza only work at symptom onset. so if someone has had it for a few days, they are not going to waste money to confirm if it is the flu because there is nothing they can do at that point if they can't treat it.

My daughter is just getting over the flu. The symptoms, achy, tired, sleeping a lot, hung on so long [ 3 weeks ] we thought she may have mono. She had an appointment today and came back clear for it and he said it was just the virus "hanging on". I'm wondering what's got this flu bug so rampant. From what I hear, they say it's just getting started.

A few weeks ago I contracted a virus , i was so ill my Blood pressure was 220/140 approx, the doctor refused to believe the reading.
I lost my contract job..yes thgey can replace you ..if you are on a medical certificate in Australia..if you are on contract..no notice nothing.

I still do not know which virus I contracted , I went for every test and had CT scans and ultrasound.

I felt like I was dying, it lasted for approx one month.

I lost one stone in weight.

There are things going around, and let me tell you a lot of it is from people from the subcontinent.

Iam not being racist, its just wesdtern people do not have immunity against viruses from India/Pakistan ect.

I was sharing a vehicle with someone from this part of the world prior to getting ill.

Its not the first time , I have gotten ill, after coming into contact with these recently arrived people.

Iam strong I survived, but how many do not?

We are deluding ourselves, we are being exposed to viruses, we never have known in the western world, the health tests are a joke for migrants, from this part of the world.

The doctors don't even know now what virus I was exposed to.

Guard yourself...no one else will.

reply to post by Rezlooper


The H1N1 caused a lot more problems then people think. Medical services were overwhelmed, atsers are just dissappointed that there were not bodies lying in the streets.

H1N1 was a concern because it was related to the fu that caused the severe pandemic in 1918. Also, what scared health officials was how quickly it spread. It should take months for a flu to spread, and in this case, it showed up in only a few weeks.

It was because of preparations, quick turn around of the vaccine and public education that kept it from being worse than it was.

Originally posted by 0zzymand0s
reply to post by Rezlooper

 

How many people die every single year from the Flu in the US?

Sorry, Influenza is deadly. You start squirting out both ends and don't get enough fluids? You die. You come down with the Flu, recover a bit, catch a secondary infection and don't get treated for it in time? Your dead.

The actual number is somewhere between 3000 and 49,000, according to the CDC:

www.cdc.gov...

All death is a personal tragedy for someone, but in the aggregate: the Flu kills tens of thousands of people every single year.

Make sure you mention that it's the elderly and the already sick in those numbers, but of course that won't fit with your theory. I'm a news watcher, but maybe I missed it over the years, yet I don't recall seeing news reports of two teenagers dying within days of each other from the flu!