I’m 42 years old. I’ve never had a flu shot, and the last time I had the flu was 30 years ago. At least I think it was the flu. Typical cold symptoms, but worse, plus plenty of barfing and diarrhea.
How lucky am I to have not had the flu since then? I can’t seem to find data estimating the total number of cases per year in the US; all I can find is records of the total number of emergency room visits/hospitalizations with confirmed flu infection, but surely the total numer of cases is much larger than this, as I would guess most folks don’t bother going to the ER.
So what’s the deal? Am I crazy-lucky to have not had the flu in all that time, or is my track record pretty typical? Are there some poor unfortunate bastards out there who get the flu on a fairly regular basis?
I’m 41 and the last time I had the flu was grade school. Since then it’s just been regular colds and the last time I had one of those was around 10 years ago. I’ve never had a flu shot either.
Another one checking in. 32 years old, never had a flu shot. There was one time where I may have had the flu. Had the ‘hit by a truck’ feeling and was out of commission for about 3 days. Every year I think about getting one, then I forget about and by the time I think about it again, flu season has passed.
Probably just lucky.
Don’t get how people either know or do not know they has the flu.
My understanding is influenza can be very mild. I thought it wasn’t possible to tell without lab conformation and that only ~25% of suspected influenza like illnesses were actually influenza.
It looks like nearly 30% of “samples” had the flu last week, but I don’t have enough time to parse the details on whether samples represents the population at large or just some subsection. (Find them yourself here).
Now that we have a number, you could calculate the odds of beating the flu each year alive to see how lucky you are, but… you’d be making two assumptions:
First, that the chance of infection is the same for everyone, but living situation, general health, immune history and genetics all play roles in who gets the flu.
Second, that you’re correct about not having the flu. The severity of symptoms varies widely, and are often confused with the cold. So you may have had the flu several times and chalked it up to something else.
I am 63 and I am not sure if I have ever had the flu. If I have it was mild.
In my full-time working life 1971-2003 I was sick enough to miss work
only four times, never for more than five work days in a row.
Apprx. 1984-2003 I got a yearly (free) flu shot at work.
After retiring I skipped the flu shots 2004-2011, and was never sick.
In 2012 I finally started getting nervous about pushing my luck, and
got a ($31.99) booster at Walgreen.
One of my best friends who is I think 67 was not sick in all the time
I knew him from 1979 until last year: 34 years. I mean, the guy was
just never sick. Never. Well, his luck almost ran out last month when
he caught a bad enough case of the flu to damage in heart enough to
damn near kill him, as in intensive care for about a day, and a week
in the hospital after that. Happily once he was forced to seek treatment
the medical profession did a great job, and he appears to be on the
road to full recovery. Everyone who knows him plans to nag him about
getting a shot next year. I intend to continue getting them myself.
I’ve not had all the out of commission “influenza symptoms” that are typical of the flu, but when I’ve had colds and felt sick occasionally I’ve not gone to the hospital. I’ve never really been to a doctor for any infectious disease aside from strep throat a few times. I most likely had norovirus once because I had all the symptoms, but it could have been the flu or something else entirely.
Even as a kid, when I got sick it was always gastrointestinal, and I’ve only gotten sick a few times as an adult. My understanding is flu rarely has gastrointestinal components in adults, and only sometimes in children.
So I’m not really one who has much gotten sick, but given the huge range of symptoms and severity of the various influenza strains I have no idea how I’d know if I’ve had it in the 40+ years as an adult or not. I’d need some sort of test to know that, at the time of illness.
Children and the elderly are the most likely to get the flu. If you don’t have kids or spend time around the elderly you are less likely to get the flu. In adults most bouts of the flu do not cause diarrhea or vomiting. That is more likely caused by a stomach virus or food poisoning.
I had the flu this year and the symptoms were mild nasal congestion and coughing, bodyaches, extreme tiredness, fever, chills, and night sweats. I may have had the flu one other time in my life, before I had kids but when I was working at a daycare.
:dubious: You sure about that? My understanding was that children/elderly who get the flu are more likely to become extremely ill from it, but I wasn’t aware that they are more likely to actually become infected in the first place.
55, had a flu shot once (1996 or so.)
Had flu once, a couple of years ago. I’ve had…maybe five or six colds in my adult life. I don’t typically “catch things.”
Many people say they have the flu when really they just have a nasty cold, or a norovirus/stomach type bug. When you have real flu, you know it! I could barely move for three days and that’s not hyperbole.
I may consider getting the flu shot in the future out of social consciousness to contribute to herd immunity. Although the only study I found on herd immunity and flu shots stressed the effect of vaccinated children and adolescents on the community as a whole, not vaccinated adults.
(That article discusses the study and the link to the JAMA study is a .pdf.)
According to the CDC, between 5% and 20% of people get the flu in a given year. Using only those percentages and pretending that everyone has an equal chance to get the flu every year, a person has a between 21% and 0.1% chance of not contracting it in a 30 year period. I don’t know if it’s at all safe to assume that an average year sees 12.5% of people coming down with the flu. But if so, your odds of being flu free for 30 years would be around 2%.