Do I need to tell my doctor if I have Australian flu?

[veganmua]

I am so ill, I have severe ME anyway. Is there anything they can do, or will they just tell me to take painkillers and wait until I'm better. Been really ill for a day and a half.

 

[alex3619]

If you act very fast you might be prescribed tamiflu ... but there is no telling how you might react. On the other hand I do not know the antiviral policy in the UK. They might just say rest, drink fluids, and take some OTC painkillers.

 

[alex3619]

I also do not know if Tamiflu is effective against H3N2.

 

[Artorias]

I am so ill, I have severe ME anyway. Is there anything they can do, or will they just tell me to take painkillers and wait until I'm better. Been really ill for a day and a half.

I see you're in the UK. Call 111, tell them you are housebound and too ill to visit the doctor. Someone will call you back and either give you the same info that a doctor would give you (rest, take painkillers, keep taking in fluids etc), or arrange for someone to visit you. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[zzz]

I also do not know if Tamiflu is effective against H3N2.

It's actually not clear that Tamiflu is very effective against any flu virus, especially once symptoms have arisen. In the January/February 2018 issue of Discover magazine, the article "A Flu-Fighter's Fall from Grace" states the following:

In 2010, in the middle of the H1N1 swine flu pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated Tamiflu as an "essential medication," encouraging governments to stockpile it...

But Roche, Tamiflu's maker, had buried the results of several clinical trials. Independent reviews of this unpublished research, in 2012 and 2014, found no evidence that Tamiflu reduced hospitalizations or deaths; it also caused adverse effects...

One independent review was by the Cochrane Collaboration, published in the BMJ as the article Tamiflu & Relenza: how effective are they? From the article:

Tamiflu (the antiviral drug oseltamivir) shortens symptoms of influenza by half a day, but there is no good evidence to support claims that it reduces admissions to hospital or complications of influenza. This is according to the updated Cochrane evidence review, published today by The Cochrane Collaboration, the independent, global healthcare research network, and the BMJ. Evidence from treatment trials confirms increased risk of suffering from nausea and vomiting. And when Tamiflu was used in prevention trials, there was an increased risk of headaches, psychiatric disturbances, and renal events. Although when used as a preventative treatment, the drug can reduce the risk of people suffering symptomatic influenza, it is unproven that it can stop people carrying the influenza virus and spreading it to others.

The latest updated Cochrane Review: Neuraminidase inhibitors for preventing and treating influenza in healthy adults and children, is based on full internal reports of 20 Tamiflu (oseltamivir) and 26 Relenza (zanamivir) trials. These trials involved more than 24,000 people and the findings challenge the historical assumption that neuraminidase inhibitors are effective in combating influenza. The evidence also suggests there are insufficient grounds to support the use of Tamiflu in preventing person-to-person spread of influenza. This raises further questions about the most effective way to support drug regulation and public health policy decision-making. Claims about the effectiveness of Tamiflu against complications were a key factor in decisions made by governments around the world to stockpile these drugs in case of a pandemic. The US has spent more than $1.3 billion buying a strategic reserve of antivirals, while in the UK the government has spent almost £424 million for a stockpile of about 40 million doses*.

In 2009, a lack of access to available trial data hampered the efforts of the Cochrane researchers to verify the safety and effectiveness of Tamiflu – and led to questions over decisions to stockpile the drug while the risks and benefits remained uncertain. Today, the BMJ and Cochrane issue a joint call to government and health policy decision makers the world over asking, in light of the latest findings from the Cochrane Review, would you make the same recommendations today, choosing to stockpile Tamiflu?

Compared with a placebo, taking Tamiflu led to a quicker alleviation of influenza-like symptoms of just half a day (from 7 days to 6.3 days) in adults, but the effect in children was more uncertain. There was no evidence of a reduction in hospitalisations or serious influenza complications; confirmed pneumonia, bronchitis, sinusitis or ear infection in either adults or children. Tamiflu also increased the risk of nausea and vomiting in adults by around 4 percent and in children by 5 percent. There was a reported increased risk of psychiatric events of around 1 percent when Tamiflu was used to prevent influenza. Evidence also suggests that Tamiflu prevented some people from producing sufficient numbers of their own antibodies to fight infection.

 

[Hajnalka]

I have no recommendation, sorry, just wanted to send my best wishes! Hopefully you'll recover and go back to baseline soon. Your parents seem to be supportive (from your other threads), could they phone the GP and ask what to do or ask for a home visit?

ETA: Sorry, just saw that this thread is 2 weeks old. I was a little late! Hopefully you're already much better!