Little question on the flu

What a great day Saturday--immense props to the coaches and team. I did have one question come up as I read on Franchuk's notebook:



"Kyle Collinsworth was not able to play as much as we wanted him to because he had the flu during the week....Stomach illness swamped the team earlier this week, Rose added.



"Yeah, Thursday, after the Colorado State game (the previous night), we were down to very few guys in practice....I don't know if it was food poisoning or some kind of a flu bug, but hopefully we can get that behind us and move on to the big challenge of next week"



I'm just wondering--anyone know if they give the players flu shots back in Oct/Nov, to reduce the risk of the flu bug biting at some critical time?

Flu shots are a joke, they only work on less then 30% of flu strains.

Yeah, basically every year in July the drug companies do some research and try to predict which 3-4 flu strains will be most prevalent the coming winter and create a vaccine for those specific strains, but you're not covered from surprise strains.

Vaccine Only works against respiratory flu, not the so called "stomach flu". Not sure what was going through the team.



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As noted above, the annual flu vaccine is designed to protect against the three variants of the seasonal influenza virus projected to be most common that year. The 2010-2011 version, for example, includes H1N1 and two less publicized variants. These bugs cause respiratory influenza, not colds or "stomach flu."



Now, give me a second to climb on my soapbox. Yes, it is a crapshoot as to whether the researchers have guessed correctly on the most common variants for a given year, and only three are included in the vaccine, so there is a decent chance that you will still get the flu even if you are vaccinated. And, yes, influenza is uncommon except in children/adolescents, in the elderly, and those with chronic respiratory or cardiovascular conditions. So, most of us that get the flu shot are not actually protecting ourselves. Instead, we are reducing the risk of being a carrier of the virus to our children, elderly contacts and the chronically ill. H1N1 turned out to be a dud compared to the media panic that it generated, but sooner (probably) or later (hopefully) a virulent, novel influenza variant like the Spanish Lady of 1918 will mutate onto the scene. So get a flu shot, every year!

Thanks. (climbing down now)

Let me add to what CougDoc said; not only are children and immunocompromised eldery/HIV/etc. patients at a higher risk to contract a flu virus; but anything that compromises the immune system puts us at a higher risk at developing signs and symptoms of the virus... including other viruses and infection. (just because you contact a virus doesn't mean you'll show signs of the disease, it depends on the virus, it's virulency, and our abillity to fight it off).



Athletes (college kids in general) that perform at high stress levels, experience changes in sleep patterns, weather changes, extremes in temperature, even changes in atmospheric pressure, spending time in public bathrooms and large classrooms are going to be more susceptible to the flu, respiratory virus, and other infections related to a decrease in their ability to fight the infection.



These kids don't live in bubbles, however a good trainer needs to be willing to protect and educate the athletes in healthy hygiene, good sleep, stress reduction, and adequate (even virus reducing) diet. You simply cannot stress your body as hard as they do and assume that because they're young and healthy that they haven't compromised their immunity.

All of that is true if this was the flu. However, if it was the 'flu', basically that's an excuse used by BYU opponents to explain why all those old white guys beat them (correct me if I'm wrong, Kawhi), and which we use as salt in the wounds of the people we just beat. I LOVE the fact that we used this right back on them after we WON. Beautiful!

Technically there is no such thing as the stomach "flu" since the flu is a virus that infects the respiratory system (nose, throat, lungs).



Bronchitis and pneumonia are bacterial infections that affect the respiratory system.



If the team had stomach issues than it's more likely a bacterial infection very likely caused by something they all ate. Stay away from the buffet lines, guys.



Either that, or one guy got sick and some others thought they'd take the opportunity to be "sick" to. ;)

Gunk wrote:
Technically there is no such thing as the stomach "flu" since the flu is a virus that infects the respiratory system (nose, throat, lungs).



Bronchitis and pneumonia are bacterial infections that affect the respiratory system.



If the team had stomach issues than it's more likely a bacterial infection very likely caused by something they all ate. Stay away from the buffet lines, guys.



Either that, or one guy got sick and some others thought they'd take the opportunity to be "sick" to. ;)

not really true, you can have bacterial pneumonia and viral gastroenteritis