I am one of the student who is plannig to study postgraduate study in UK.
I have been accepted by the University of Essex to study MSc Computer
Science which made me so proud and happy. However, the swine flu existed
in the UK nowadays really makes me so anxious and nervous. The reason is
that I have a respitory problem which is bronchial asthma. But, it is not
so serious and I have not taken any drug treatment for it. I just have
rarely so little attacks that’s why I rarely use a drug to heal it.
Therefore, my asthma is not a serious one which does not prevent me from
living a life like normal people. On the other hand, when I get flu, I
feel bad about my lungs, and have some respitory problems. For this
reason, I am so anxious that if I get a swine flu during my study at Essex
in spite of my doing best to avoid that, I may have in a real bad and
dangerous situation. Hence, I am so frustrated and devastated since swine
flu fac can affect my future studies about UK. Because, health is always
more important then career.
So, as a doctor or expert at UK, would you please tell me something which
can relieve me about this issue ?

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Last week, the agency also reported 567 swine flu hospitalizations occurring in the city’s five boroughs.

Citywide, at least 79 percent of the swine flu patients have been younger than 50 and nearly 46 percent have been younger than 18, health officials said. Typically, the very young and the elderly are hardest hit by influenza.”

At least they are finally admitting asthma is a significant risk factor. I regularly read the NYC online news and I know a lot of people were very frustrated by the way health officials were refusing to be specific about the risk factors. They kept hinting that the people who died had multiple health conditions and were debilitated, which was generally not the case.

I still don’t know what to do about the steriod use issue. Will it hurt you by depressing your immune response and making you vulnerable to pneumonia if you have the flu or help you by preventing an over-reaction of the immune system (the cytokine storm)? If anyone can get a straight answer to that please post it here.

I just went through a very stressful month with my son in college (who lives at home). There were at least 7 people at his college with the swine flu, so of course he picks this particular time to get a respiratory infection! His flu test was negative but he still had the usual asthma flare with this infection. I struggled with whether or not to let him take the oral steroids he was given. He was miserable from the constant coughing but I was afraid the steroid’s immune – depressing action would leave him vulnerable to the flu. We eventually decided he should take a very low dose of the prednisone over a three day break from school and then switch to the inhaled steroid. Like I said, stressful month – and to make it worse, I have asthma and a heart condition and a disabled a daughter with a weak immune system. There was some serious mask and hand sanitizer usage in this house!