Any cold/flu strains other than covid currently circulating in Thailand (NE)?

[grain]

I'm testing covid negative despite being ill with cold/flu symptoms, like sore throat & some body aches. My symptoms began last Saturday, same day as my wife, who tested positive to covid after 3 days, but has now pretty well recovered and is feeling back to normal. I just presumed we both had caught covid but I tested neg twice on day 3, neg again on day 4, and neg again today, day 6. So it appears I have some damn cold/flu virus but not covid. Really weird as I don't go out or mix with anyone. I must have got infected from my wife as she's the one who goes off shopping and dealing with locals (and covid has been racing through the district since Songkran) so I can't understand why she shows positive and I don't despite me having the same cold/flu symptoms.

[internationalism]

maybe she is more thorough in inserting swab into nosal cavity, thats why she is positive.

Eating, drinking, washing tooth etc before swab can also make negative.

 

btw - time for a yearly flu jab, just before a rainy season.

Also there are some vaxes for lung infections. You can do them together with flu or in monthly intervals.

 

[smutcakes]

I would say its about 99% positive you have had it if your wife has and you dont mix with others. Just <deleted> ATK tests or poor technique taking them. Get a PCR test if you want to be really sure.

[grain]

1 hour ago, internationalism said:

maybe she is more thorough in inserting swab into nosal cavity, thats why she is positive.

Eating, drinking, washing tooth etc before swab can also make negative.

 

btw - time for a yearly flu jab, just before a rainy season.

Also there are some vaxes for lung infections. You can do them together with flu or in monthly intervals.

 

Yes I watched lots of YT vids before doing the tests and closely followed all instructions, waited an hour after last eating drinking. One test was swabbing both tonsils then nasal cavities. 

[grain]

51 minutes ago, smutcakes said:

I would say its about 99% positive you have had it if your wife has and you dont mix with others. Just <deleted> ATK tests or poor technique taking them. Get a PCR test if you want to be really sure.

I thought about that too. We used the same test kits, 10 min later she's got 2 lines, I got 1. Don't really want to go to a hospital for a pcr in case I am pos and they nab me and slug me a big bill. I'll sit it out in self iso. 

[rwill]

We have a freind who had a cold recently.  Was kind of sick for 4-5 days.  It wasn't covid.

[ThaiFelix]

I had to pinch myself and look at your avatar twic because your story is absolutely 100% my story except I dont have body aches.  We too live in NE, I never go out only her to local market very occasionally, we dont allow visitors, and always have masks around others.  She home tested positive 4 days ago whereas I came up negative.  She is feeling unwell, has a cough, some nasal congestion, light fever, body aches and headaches.  I only have very very slight symptoms of same but no body aches or fever.  

 

Wife has to go to local hospital for xrays tomorrow.  They seem to be taking a close watch (phone calls) on her due the fact she has diabetes.  I will try to get tested again tomorrow while we are there because I too cant believe she has it and me not.

[grain]

11 hours ago, rwill said:

We have a freind who had a cold recently.  Was kind of sick for 4-5 days.  It wasn't covid.

Ok, so there are other things getting about.

[mania]

30 minutes ago, grain said:

Ok, so there are other things getting about.

Always period.

There is never a time when colds/flu's etc etc are not circulating.

Anyone who has raised kids knows that one

 

Its like asking if any sharks are swimming in the ocean today ????

[Scott]

It's probably a good idea to get a hospital-administered test to see if it is actually Covid.  Depending on our general health there is always the slim possibility of longer term effects.  

There is also the possibility of it being a cold or influenza, although it's unlikely that with the care you've been taking that you would have contracted flu.  

 

If you get tested, let us know the outcome.  Inquiring minds want to know (and so do I)!!

[superal]

15 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

I had to pinch myself and look at your avatar twic because your story is absolutely 100% my story except I dont have body aches.  We too live in NE, I never go out only her to local market very occasionally, we dont allow visitors, and always have masks around others.  She home tested positive 4 days ago whereas I came up negative.  She is feeling unwell, has a cough, some nasal congestion, light fever, body aches and headaches.  I only have very very slight symptoms of same but no body aches or fever.  

 

Wife has to go to local hospital for xrays tomorrow.  They seem to be taking a close watch (phone calls) on her due the fact she has diabetes.  I will try to get tested again tomorrow while we are there because I too cant believe she has it and me not.

Just a couple of things that both you and grains did not comment on and that is vaccines . If you had what were they and did your lady have the same ?  I had covid about 6 weeks ago and it was same as a heavy cold ,  tickley throat , sneezing and non stop runny nose , headache like never before but after 3 days nearly clear but took a total of 8 days to test negative on the rapid flow test . BTW my initial test had the 2nd red line appear within 10 seconds but after 5 days I had to wait abut 10 minutes for the feint line to appear . Hope your wife gets well soon .

[StevieAus]

4 hours ago, mania said:

Always period.

There is never a time when colds/flu's etc etc are not circulating.

Anyone who has raised kids knows that one

 

Its like asking if any sharks are swimming in the ocean today ????

You are spot on about kids our daughter is close to 6 yrs the last year due to Covid she has had little formal schooling but no illnesses.

Prior to that as soon as she went to school she picked something up.

 

[StevieAus]

19 hours ago, grain said:

I thought about that too. We used the same test kits, 10 min later she's got 2 lines, I got 1. Don't really want to go to a hospital for a pcr in case I am pos and they nab me and slug me a big bill. I'll sit it out in self iso. 

My understanding is that with Government hospitals they are not admitting people with Covid unless you have serious complications.

That is certainly the case where I live in Northern Chiang Mai Province.

If you test positive they are giving Tamil Flu etc and being told to isolate at home.

[kokopelli]

Yes, a Thai friend went to the hospital and was tested positive for Flu.  He though it was Covid but the test confirmed it was influenza.

[grain]

3 hours ago, superal said:

Just a couple of things that both you and grains did not comment on and that is vaccines . If you had what were they and did your lady have the same ?  I had covid about 6 weeks ago and it was same as a heavy cold ,  tickley throat , sneezing and non stop runny nose , headache like never before but after 3 days nearly clear but took a total of 8 days to test negative on the rapid flow test . BTW my initial test had the 2nd red line appear within 10 seconds but after 5 days I had to wait abut 10 minutes for the feint line to appear . Hope your wife gets well soon .

Good point, we're both triple vaxed. Missis had 2Xsinovac + Pf booster, I had 2XAZ also Pf booster, both our boosters were just a couple months ago, so I guess their potency is still high. The Missis has completely recovered now, she really only had 1 very bad day, which was last Sunday (day 2). Since then she has be improving day by day. I've got a bunch of different RATs here and will test her tomorrow, I expect she'll be neg by then. I was ok for the first 5 days, apart from just having a mild sore throat, but over the past 2 days I've got worse - weakness, aches (arms, legs, body, face) my throat feels raw and I've a bit of dry cough. But I'm feeling better right at this moment as I'm loaded up with meds...para, Fa Thai Jon, and an antihistamine. I would say how I feel is much the same as I've felt in the past years whenever I caught the seasonal flu. Feel like sh** but not bad enough to be considering going to a hospital. 

[grain]

3 hours ago, StevieAus said:

My understanding is that with Government hospitals they are not admitting people with Covid unless you have serious complications.

That is certainly the case where I live in Northern Chiang Mai Province.

If you test positive they are giving Tamil Flu etc and being told to isolate at home.

Yes, guess so, I think I just got concerned about some recent reports of them keeping farang in hospitals and running up big padded bills. Anyway, even though I feel bad it's no worse than other colds/flues I've had, so I'll just wait it out.

[grain]

5 hours ago, Scott said:

It's probably a good idea to get a hospital-administered test to see if it is actually Covid.  Depending on our general health there is always the slim possibility of longer term effects.  

There is also the possibility of it being a cold or influenza, although it's unlikely that with the care you've been taking that you would have contracted flu.  

 

If you get tested, let us know the outcome.  Inquiring minds want to know (and so do I)!!

Just seems to be too much of a coincidence that I come down with regular cold/flu on the exact same day my missis comes down with covid. 

[internationalism]

unless you need recovery certificate (for some purpose, for example travel or entering some premises, like workplace, hospital treatments) no need for a pcr, which costs some 2k.

Also no point in constant atk testing. You both might be positive for up to 3 months.

Save those atk for future suspected infections. There is a point doing them on onset, so to know to self-isolate.

Your wife gave you virus many days after she became infected, looks like you have a stronger immune system. 

Some develop symptoms after 48h, some others after much longer.

[grain]

BINGO!!! 
I knew I bloody well had it. There's no way missis & I can both develop symptoms on the same day and she has covid and I have just regular cold. Missis showed a positive result after 3 days, but for some reason I didn't show positive until day 6. Oh well, now I know, I'm in self ISO, got plenty of paracetamol. My missis has now fully recovered, so I hope to be on the mend next week.

[superal]

55 minutes ago, grain said:

Good point, we're both triple vaxed. Missis had 2Xsinovac + Pf booster, I had 2XAZ also Pf booster, both our boosters were just a couple months ago, so I guess their potency is still high. The Missis has completely recovered now, she really only had 1 very bad day, which was last Sunday (day 2). Since then she has be improving day by day. I've got a bunch of different RATs here and will test her tomorrow, I expect she'll be neg by then. I was ok for the first 5 days, apart from just having a mild sore throat, but over the past 2 days I've got worse - weakness, aches (arms, legs, body, face) my throat feels raw and I've a bit of dry cough. But I'm feeling better right at this moment as I'm loaded up with meds...para, Fa Thai Jon, and an antihistamine. I would say how I feel is much the same as I've felt in the past years whenever I caught the seasonal flu. Feel like sh** but not bad enough to be considering going to a hospital. 

So it could be that you have a stronger immune system than your wife who had the sino vac x2 as opposed to your az x 2 ( I had same as you ) . We all know that sino vac is not as effective as most other vaccines . It is a pity that we cannot get a pcr test without the fear of testing positive and taken to a covid camp where we have to stay for maybe 10 days and be hit with a huge bill . It is for that reason that the real covid stats will never be known in Thailand , maybe designed for that reason ?

Finally when covid is compared with a heavy cold or the flu . If you get flu , it will lay you up for a week with a high temperature and severe muscle pains . It can put you out of action for a couple of weeks . Flu is often confused with a heavy cold which can have similar symptoms to flu but on a milder degree . Heavy cold is often described as flu by men or indeed by others as man flu .

[superal]

24 minutes ago, grain said:

BINGO!!! 
I knew I bloody well had it. There's no way missis & I can both develop symptoms on the same day and she has covid and I have just regular cold. Missis showed a positive result after 3 days, but for some reason I didn't show positive until day 6. Oh well, now I know, I'm in self ISO, got plenty of paracetamol. My missis has now fully recovered, so I hope to be on the mend next week.

How long did it take for the red stripe to appear ? BTW , I found that a salt water gargle on the throat gave some relief but even better was a warm water and whisky gargle and plenty of them . Good luck and get well soon .

[grain]

3 minutes ago, superal said:

How long did it take for the red stripe to appear ? BTW , I found that a salt water gargle on the throat gave some relief but even better was a warm water and whisky gargle and plenty of them . Good luck and get well soon .

The T line came up pretty well instant, the C red line came up in 2-3 minutes. And as for throat gargle, I have a full bottle of Scotch here, I don't intend hitting it hard as I'm taking meds too, but will have a couple of slugs with warm water this evening. Thanks for your kind wishes.

[ThaiFelix]

4 hours ago, superal said:

Just a couple of things that both you and grains did not comment on and that is vaccines . If you had what were they and did your lady have the same ?  I had covid about 6 weeks ago and it was same as a heavy cold ,  tickley throat , sneezing and non stop runny nose , headache like never before but after 3 days nearly clear but took a total of 8 days to test negative on the rapid flow test . BTW my initial test had the 2nd red line appear within 10 seconds but after 5 days I had to wait abut 10 minutes for the feint line to appear . Hope your wife gets well soon .

Had a swab test at the local hospital just now and again negative result.  They want me to go back on Tuesday for a retest.  I must say I was surprised with the negative test again because as pointed out earlier I seem to have mild flu/cold symptons though no fever or body aches.

 

To answer your questions, both my wife and I had two AZ shots followed by a pfizer booster about a month ago.

 

This may sound a bit silly, and please excuse me if you think it is,  but a few years ago when everyone was worried about the SARS/bird flu I read somewhere of a theory that if your decendants had survived the Spanish flue then a certain amount of immunity is passed on through the generations.  Maybe absolute nonsense but I have only ever had a bad dose of the flu twice in my life, once when I was about 7 and once at 18 straight after having flu shots??  I have never had a flue shot since but have always managed to escape the flu when others around me were dropping like flies.

 

Anyhow I will get retested on Tuesday and see what happens then.  In the meantime this hansum man will just have to fight off my wifes amourous advances till she is clear lol!

[ThaiFelix]

1 hour ago, grain said:

Just seems to be too much of a coincidence that I come down with regular cold/flu on the exact same day my missis comes down with covid. 

Maybe she had both and you only the cold/flu?  Thats what I'm thinking in our case.

[ThaiFelix]

45 minutes ago, grain said:

BINGO!!! 
I knew I bloody well had it. There's no way missis & I can both develop symptoms on the same day and she has covid and I have just regular cold. Missis showed a positive result after 3 days, but for some reason I didn't show positive until day 6. Oh well, now I know, I'm in self ISO, got plenty of paracetamol. My missis has now fully recovered, so I hope to be on the mend next week.

Sorry to hear that, get well soon.  Maybe its coming for me too.  Like you say, hard to believe a husband and wife can live together without both coming down with it.  And whats worse is not a drop of whiskey in the house lol!

[grain]

54 minutes ago, ThaiFelix said:

Sorry to hear that, get well soon.  Maybe its coming for me too.  Like you say, hard to believe a husband and wife can live together without both coming down with it.  And whats worse is not a drop of whiskey in the house lol!

I got a big bottle of Bells 385Bt for WishCo. Just the shot with a hot mug of cocoa.

[Scott]

6 hours ago, ThaiFelix said:

Sorry to hear that, get well soon.  Maybe its coming for me too.  Like you say, hard to believe a husband and wife can live together without both coming down with it.  And whats worse is not a drop of whiskey in the house lol!

The Omicron variant ripped through my neighborhood.  I suspect a couple of indoor events were the primary cause although pretty much everyone was wearing masks.  I suspect a lot of noses were out and a few were used as a chin support.

 

7 of my immediate neighbors all got infected, all vaccinated (and most boosted).  1 couple unvaxxed -- they got quite ill, but not hospitalization, just daily visits from medical providers.  

 

About 50% of the couples effected had only one person test positive and get sick.   This is far from scientific, but it would seem that the vaccines had maintained about 50% efficacy against Omicron.  

 

Best of luck and I hope you have a speedy recovery.

 

[StevieAus]

8 hours ago, grain said:

Yes, guess so, I think I just got concerned about some recent reports of them keeping farang in hospitals and running up big padded bills. Anyway, even though I feel bad it's no worse than other colds/flues I've had, so I'll just wait it out.

And the bonus is from articles I have read is that once you have had Covid you get better immunity that having the fourth booster

[NanLaew]

10 hours ago, grain said:

BINGO!!! 
I knew I bloody well had it. There's no way missis & I can both develop symptoms on the same day and she has covid and I have just regular cold. Missis showed a positive result after 3 days, but for some reason I didn't show positive until day 6. Oh well, now I know, I'm in self ISO, got plenty of paracetamol. My missis has now fully recovered, so I hope to be on the mend next week.

Maybe your wife got omicron but somehow you got the delta? Although omicron has cornered the market, I imagine the older variants may still pop up? Your wife's 3-day to test positive versus your 6-day also matches the narrative that was going about when omicron was first detected: earlier onset and peak shedding but shorter illness with faster recovery.