Has anyone else got flu?

Hello Leonora, I'm sorry to read you are so poorly.
Just to say I tested negative on LFT at first and then come the fourth day tested positive and it lasted for 10 days. Completely floored me. I was given antibiotics for my chest.
I think there are various viruses doing the rounds. Glad you have antibiotics. Plenty of fluids and rest.
Hope you soon feel better.

Dr Chris Smith on BBC breakfast today said flu is doing the rounds. But as Joane123 says, many have symptoms for days before testing +ve for Covid.

Jaxjacky

Dr Chris Smith on BBC breakfast today said flu is doing the rounds. But as Joane123 says, many have symptoms for days before testing +ve for Covid.

I endorse this. My son had got flu but tested negative for Covid. 4 days later he got a positive result. Weird?

DH & I have heavy head colds coughing and sneezing for a week now. All LFTs negative

Boz

Jaxjacky

Dr Chris Smith on BBC breakfast today said flu is doing the rounds. But as Joane123 says, many have symptoms for days before testing +ve for Covid.

I endorse this. My son had got flu but tested negative for Covid. 4 days later he got a positive result. Weird?

No, it's not weird. He possibly had Covid all the time. The latest variants attack the body almost as soon as a person is infected and antibodies try to fight infection, which is why people get symptoms. In the very early stages, results on LFTs will show up as negative. If the antibodies fail to clear it, slightly later tests will be positive.

As people are now having to pay for tests, it's possible they won't keep on testing if they get an initial negative result, so it's highly likely that cases are being underreported.

Unless some kind of detailed testing is introduced for flu-like symptoms, nobody knows what's really going on.

I have had flu like symptoms all week. It started less than a week after I was recovering from covid. I feel I have aged considerably in the last month! No energy, awful cough, spiking temps, aching all over, keep falling asleep.

I was having symptoms for covid a few days before I tested positive (this is recently)

Sorry to hear this. A specialist on the news this morning said that this year's flu vaccine has proved to be less effective than usual for some reason.

I had 'flu once, in the days before we had 'flu vaccinations.

My GP said he knew it was flu' because I couldn't lift my head from the pillow for about a week, I was so ill and I had a permanent headache from hell!
I wouldn't wish it on anyone. I was so unwell, I couldn't have cared less, what happened to me.

DH and I have rotten colds. Lateral flow tests negative. I'm doing another later as we have a meal booked with friends tomorrow to celebrate our joint Ruby wedding anniversaries and we really don't want to cancel at this late date.
All my family have had this cold too.

My DH has this. Hacking cough, headache, off his food, feeling tired and generally unwell. GP gave him antibiotics for secondary infection following phone consultation. Tested negative for Covid after day two and day four. He’s now feeling better after a week but cough still lingering. I’m hoping to get away with it.

Testing negative for four or five days is not unusual My daughter was on the fourth day before she tested positive although she had been feeling washed out and coughing for all of the four days so we weren’t surprised I tested positive the first day I felt unwell but stayed positive for 12 days

Lateral flow tests may be missing ‘substantial’ number of COVID-19 infections:

www.imperial.ac.uk/news/234154/lateral-flow-tests-missing-substantial-number/

And that was before most cases were the Omicron variant, which is being missed by even more LFTs.

Unless people with flu/bad cold symptoms are tested for non-Covid viruses as well as Covid, it's impossible to know with any certainty what they have.

I was on my fifth day of testing, after my DH tested positive, when I first tested positive and it was the faintest of red lines. It's pretty obvious now.

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