There is a flu or a cold going around that is particularly vicious. It knocked me completely out of commission for three weeks straight. It got worse everyday for a week, and even when it finally peaked, the recovery was painfully slow: I’ve never been that sick for that long in my life. In fact I can still feel it four weeks later. One bug that’s going is called the Aussie Flu, or maybe I just had a cold that was especially virulent. Whatever it is, it’s all over Texas:
The HCPH is the local public health agency for the Harris County and the 2017-2018 has been one of the busiest on record for cold and flu. It hit the Houston-area sometime in early November. National flu season usually runs between October and May. Colds only rarely come with a fever and body aches. Runny noses and a sore throat are the most common hallmarks. If a cold sticks around longer than a week its best to seek the attention of a health care provider.
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I really can’t stress enough how bad this was and how long it lasted—at full strength. Even when I finally thought it was getting better, it would get worse. Makes one wonder how the US would handle a full-blown pandemic, or how many people would be fired simply for getting the flu.
Flu viruses are split into three different types: A, B and C Influenza, with lots of different strains within these. In this year's flu season, there are four strains circulating - and about half of hospital cases are caused by the B strain. A is usually the most lethal and is first transmitted from animals to humans. This winter one of the dominant strains circulating in the UK is a strain of Influenza A called H3N2, or Aussie flu. The H3N2 strain is not new, but is a more severe strain of flu than the H1N1 strain that has circulated over the last two years.