BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?

Subject: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: open mike
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:26 PM

I hear there is a serious flu virus sweeping the U.K. just checking on Brit 'Cats to see how you all are. Good I hope!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:29 PM

UKers, hell -- it's here in Idaho! I'm just barely getting over it and so is my wife. It went through the Library like shit through a goose while I was gone for Christmas, and my MIL came down with it about the time my wife flew back here.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:31 PM

(Please don't think I'm unaware of the situation in the UK or don't have sympathy for them. It's just that in these days of same-day air travel disease spreads far faster than ever before.)

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Emma B
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:32 PM

well you can bet that anyone in the UK up this late has it!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 09:33 PM

I can certainly agree with that! Diarrhea, vomiting, awful headache....

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: open mike
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 11:09 PM

just say no no to noro virus!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 07 Jan 08 - 11:32 PM

My marketing partner -- another Brit -- and her husband and 5 year old were in the UK for the hols.....she said the little girl was soooooooooo sick on Boxing Day from this dreaded bug.....

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 12:23 AM

Not the same bug as we had, but over the break both of my kids were sneezing and coughing enough that I finally took my son to the doctor. Not bronchitis, he said, but it sounds like it. You know to get out of the way when you hear a big noisy hacking cough then he runs to the kitchen or bathroom sink. My only remark is "let the water run a little!" and offer the cough medicine.

I hope you're better soon, Mike. Flying in an airplane (as opposed to driving or taking a train, I suppose) is like being sealed inside a germ petri dish. And you're the augur.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: The PA
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:19 AM

Our office is like the consumption ward of a victorian sanitorium. Coughing and sneezing all over each other. Why dont people just go home when they start to feel unwell. I'm sure it would make difference you cant possibly work effectively when you feel so bad - the only person who went home at the first sign was one of our Directors - leading by example, why dont the stupid buggers follow !

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:38 AM

I've had something too...and I'm in Canada...in my case just the typical sore throat followed by a nose and chest cold, coughing, and that sort of thing. Had it for about 8 days now.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Llanfair
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 05:05 AM

We're standing by for the kids going back to school today and fetching the virus home with them. Disinfect everything they might touch/have touched, bleach the loo and the sinks and keep your (very clean)fingers crossed!!!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 05:47 AM

"Why dont people just go home when they start to feel unwell"

Because a lot of people either:-
(a) Work for a boss who gets shitty about people taking time off for non-life-threatening illnesses, or
(b) Don't get paid when they're off sick, so they only stay off if they DO have a life-threatening illness (and then sometimes not!), or
(c) Both.

I'm lucky, my employers are very understanding and I get paid. Not everyone's so fortunate.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 06:00 AM

I do second what Backwoodsman said.

Yes,it is around over here. Dilligaf has a nasty respiratory infection at the moment by the sound of her...

Martin Harris of Hartley Morris was doing the Dickens readings that he does (albeit he was then in the USA) a little before Xmas and managed to be violently ill all over the rather plush library. He was still sounding very hoarse yesterday.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: The PA
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 06:49 AM

Oh yes I do understand how it is for people who dont get paid, my husband never did in his previous job and is a contractor now so only gets paid when he works.
But this lot here obviously have an understanding boss AND they get paid if they're off sick! That's what gets my back up!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 07:01 AM

You are usually infecting others even before you start displaying the symptoms yourself. So not much point staying home by then.
G

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 07:18 AM

I got some sort of virus over Christmas in the UK. A really bad cough, that I'm just getting rid off, tiredness, loss of appetite and feeling sore all over, as well as a background headache.

It's still hanging on and I'll be glad when it goes!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: GUEST,The Black Belt Caterpillar Wrestler
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 07:28 AM

I just want to know how long you stay immune to the Noro-virus after you've had it and recovered.
I had it back on 6th December, but I alway do like to keep ahead of fashion!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 08:10 AM

Well, now you mention it, I've had similar symptoms for a week now.. I put it down to a different cause though and banging my head in the car. I think I'll be going to bed early tonight.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 08:22 AM

Everyone in my office is coughing, sneezing and hacking away. So far I have not gotten it. Jacqui came back from the UK sick as a dog and Tami has it now.
I had a vicious headache in the middle of the night Saturday and though it was my turn but so far I am fine.
As a new employee it is tough to take time off but one of the guys who started with me has lost three days to the flu. No one is objecting - he is a good worker and used common sense when he decided to stay home.
I didn't have that luxury last spring and the cold went into bronchitis and the bronchitis into pneumonia, First time for me and I hope the last.
Rest if you need to. Lots of fluids. Multivitamins.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 08:47 AM

My doctor suggested Pedialyte for fluid replacement. If you do go that route, as we did, I urge the unflavored version. It doesn't take like much of anything and doesn't leave an aftertaste (or not much of one) but the "flavors" include "grape" "cherry" and "bubblegum."

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 08:51 AM

That bubblegum flavour is horrid enough the first time you drink it... drinking it in reverse as it were is much MUCH worse.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 09:07 AM

And un flavoured Pedialyte is MUCH better mixed with lemon Gatorade or PowerAde.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 09:15 AM

I was going to try it with Scotch, but my wife talked me out of it.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 09:17 AM

Why?

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 11:38 AM

Exactly what flavour is bubblegum, anyway? Peppermint, spearmint, banana, unspecified fruit?

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 12:18 PM

Almost the entire occupants of fB Towers had headcold, pounding headaches when you cough, mass visits to doctors. Getting better now, and I know there are people much worse than us, but still feeling "out of it". Ah Well, back to skule tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: GUEST,BS or in it right! PB
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 02:01 PM

John from Penny Black was laid up over Christmas with the NoroVirus - Two Local Hospital have had Major Problems - must be the worst attack yet! John's OK now and back on liquids :0)


PB

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 02:34 PM

Do you know, I've had a headache ever since I read this thread this morning....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:01 PM

got it 22 December hellish Xmas got a bit better back to work AND GOT IT AGAIN!!!! feeling very below par at the mo!!!

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: autolycus
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:21 PM

Your correspondent is 62,is a heart patient (having had a mild h.s. adozen years ago) and has not had the vitus ot 'flu or a cold this winter so far; and no plans to do so. Has also refused the offer of a free flu jab.

I spend six hours a day in a warehouse with people who also don't feel it's ok to be off just cos they're ill.

Hope The PA has now understood that point.


   Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: lady penelope
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:42 PM

Yes folks it's good old Winter Vomiting Syndrome (more accurately Norovirus) time in old Blighty once more. Breaks out regular as clockwork about Christmas every year, when everybody goes back to their ancestral homes to exchange germs...

We then see a rise in cases from Christmas to a couple of weeks past New Year when it peters out, with a lovely little resurgence about February. Especially if half term is early.

Ah the joys of working in a microbiology lab....

Norovirus - 24 - 36 hours of vomiting & or diarrhoea, then, apart from feeling weak as a kitten you're generally fine. It's only a real danger to very young children and the infirm.

The coughing and the sneezing things are various versions of the common cold, not that that makes it feel any better. Unless you really can't get out of bed it ain't influenza.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: SINSULL
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 03:43 PM

So do you simply vomit into the nearest trash container and continue working? I don't understand your point.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: lady penelope
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 04:07 PM

That this is not the "epidemic" that the media have decided to turn it into. This wave of Norovirus happens every year in Britain.

Yes, Norovirus will leave you feeling like a wrung dishcloth, but it's hardly fatal unless you are in one of the two groups I mentioned. Even then, you should be fine so long as you are treated properly.

The other point was just to clear up the difference between Norovirus & flu.

I never said anything about going to work if you had any illness.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 04:18 PM

CDC Information

Noroviruses (genus Norovirus, family Caliciviridae) are a group of related, single-stranded RNA, nonenveloped viruses that cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. Norovirus was recently approved as the official genus name for the group of viruses provisionally described as "Norwalk-like viruses" (NLV).

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 08 Jan 08 - 06:41 PM

A friend of mine said he reckoned it was a bacterium which originated in Liverpool.

Hence the name..... "It's norravirus"

I'll get me coat.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: The PA
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 03:31 AM

Hi Ivor, Yes I do understand that some people will go to work no matter what, and that of course is their right.

However I personally do not like sitting next to someone who fills the bin with snotty tissues and coughs and splutters all over paperwork which they then hand to colleagues whilst constantly moaning about how crap they feel. But thats just me I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 03:36 AM

SO this is just a common or garden migraine then is it? So glad we cleared that up, I'm going back to my darkened room. Can someone turn those birds down a bit, they're really loud... and as for that cat purring, it's like a pneumatic drill in my ear.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: MBSLynne
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 03:58 AM

Managed to avoid the sickness bug but we've had the awful cough one. I rarely take anything and I'm usually the last one in the family with a cold and the least ill. This time I had to take to my bed and I took three paracetamols over the course of two days so I could sleep. Ted was also really bad with it and the kids have both had it. Just about everyone I talk to has had it and it seems to take several weeks before the cough goes away completely

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: autolycus
Date: 09 Jan 08 - 12:51 PM

No, The PA, you're not the only one.

It's a puzzle why well-paid broadcasters would feel the need to go to work when they're plainly ill, witness several Beeb people currently.

Machismo? Fear of losing job?

Can't be the money.

Ivor

Subject: RE: BS: U>K> Virus--everyone o.k.?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 Jan 08 - 07:57 AM

A family I was going to visit this weekend have just phoned me to tell me not to come near the place - they've painted the white plague cross on the door and are awaiting the man with the cart... So that's half my weekend gone... :(

LTS