Influenza World Health Care Professionals

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• "I would describe flu as something that makes you feel very, very ill. You get a headache, aching bones, and are generally fed up"
• "When I get flu symptoms I feel like a train has run over me"
• "I felt very sick and, during the first week, I had high temperature. Flu was very different to a cold. I went back to work after two and a half weeks. Then I suffered a setback for another week"
• "I run a guesthouse; flu would be a real pest for me. I couldn’t cook, I shouldn’t cook, and I wouldn’t cook, so I would need to get a lot of extra help in. It would cost me a lot more money. So flu’s a real problem, a right downturn"
• "I work on my own and when I can’t work, I have to try not to infect my little children, so they avoid getting the flu as well"
• "I feel a little numb, like I’m in another dimension. Because in general I have sore throat, headache, I feel all clogged-up. Usually a sensation like I’m floating in the air"
• "Shivers, sweats, makes you ache. Last time I had flu I was off for two weeks"
• "I think that I would probably be concerned that I would pass flu onto my children, who might not be able to deal with it as well as I would"
• "Flu makes you feel like you’ve been hit over the head with a baseball bat. You don’t feel like you can get yourself out of bed as all your energy is drawn from you"
• "I was incapable of working. It just wasn’t possible at all… and my flu dragged on for more than a week"
• "I have no strength. It annoys me because I can do nothing, it seems like I’m wasting my time"
• "Flu’s like being hit by a truck because you feel completely gone. There is no energy left in your body. You are suffering from high temperature. You’re sweating a lot and you feel really unwell"
• "First of all infinite tiredness, then I feel like sleeping and don’t want to eat"
• "I felt really miserable because my muscles and my bones were aching. Well, I can hardly describe it, I just felt really awful, absolutely miserable"
• "It’s like there’s something huge treading on your head, like a deafening noise that destroys the eardrums"
• "The fever was constantly rising – I immediately measured my temperature as soon as I got home. It was 41°C and it kept rising and I was wondering what’s going on. I was really scared! Everything was hurting and it all happened so fast. Flu came out of the blue"
• "I always feel like my limbs have iron weights tied to them and I’m going to fall over any minute, a really stuffy runny nose and feel antisocial"
• "I was totally dependent on others! I was incapable of doing anything at all"
• "The real flu knocks you for six – you just don’t want to move or do anything. It’s not very nice"
• "Not being able to go to work. Not being able to do the things I have to do at home and the commitments that I have day by day"