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Even women are getting the dreaded man flu

Lucy Kippist

by Lucy Kippist

11 Jul 12:10pm

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Filed under: H3n2 Virus, Health, Influenza, Virus

44 comments

If you go to shake someone’s hand over the next few weeks and they refuse, don’t feel bad, they’re just being sensible and taking steps to avoid getting the flu.


But you’d probably know that already because the people who are sick haven’t stopped complaining about it on Facebook and Twitter.

Social media is drowning in mopey and miserable status updates from people stuck at home with a snotty nose or a sore throat.  And we used to think it was only men that got the man flu!

Even still, the flu really is rife this year. Approximately 8000 people have been diagnosed with the influenza virus already this winter, and that’s double the number of previous years.

Apparently we can blame the H3N2 virus, which has been around for at least three years, but come out with a vengeance this winter.

Some medical experts, like Anne Kelso, director of the World Health Organisation’s Collaborating Centre for Influenza, say the influenza vaccine is partly to blame.

She told The Australian this morning that “while not dramatically different” the H3N2 virus is not the perfect match for the vaccine.”

But the flu injection is not the only solution. According to Kelso, it’s only ever been 75 per cent efficient, which means three in four people who were jabbed at the beginning of this winter season will end up protected anyway.

Another reason that could explain an increase in flu symptoms could be that we’ve forgotten how to manage and therefore prevent sickness in public spaces. Stuff like washing our hands, covering our mouths when we cough and crucially staying home from work when we’re feeling sick.

Sure the flu strain might be particularly bad this year but you can’t beat the simple stuff when it comes to avoiding illness of any kind. After all, as the saying goes, prevention is better than cure!

Most commented

44 comments

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    • Anjuli says:

      12:21pm | 11/07/12

      Then there is all the hugging and cheek kissing every one seems to be doing when they meet now .

      Reply

    • Audra Blue says:

      03:32pm | 11/07/12

      I know right?  WTF is that all about?  I recently went on a few first dates and these men I didn’t even know kissed me on the cheek, instead of taking my proffered hand.

      I was so surprised, I jumped back in alarm each time.  They looked pretty alarmed too and when I asked when did we become Europeans, they all said “everyone does it”.  Well, not me buddy.  If I don’t know you, keep your hands and your lips to yourself.  Needless to say, the dates didn’t go further than the first one.

      On topic, I rarely get sick.  If my body is fighting some kind of virus I usually only know because my throat gets a bit scratchy and a couple of days later I’m 100% good again.  But this year, I got the flu so badly, it laid me out for 2 months.  I could barely move I was so sick.  After 4 weeks I gave in and went to the doctor.  He gave me antibiotics and they fixed me up enough so that I could go to work.  But I was still really crook.

      Even now 3 months later, I’m not 100%.  I felt my throat go scratchy a few days ago and I braced myself for round 2.  Luckily nothing happened.

    • Sickemrex says:

      05:27pm | 11/07/12

      Antibiotics don’t fix a virus. Common urban myth #37.

    • Charlie says:

      06:01pm | 11/07/12

      you’re getting bent out of shape because someone tried to kiss you on the cheek? you sound like a terrible date :/

    • Audra Blue says:

      10:14pm | 11/07/12

      Okay Charlie, I’ll bite.  This is a stranger kissing me, not some guy who’s a long time friend.  I personally don’t like unfamiliar men touching me, especially if I haven’t yet decided whether I like them or not.

      It’s just good manners not to touch anyone unless you’re invited to.  I actually held out my hand to shake hands (as you do in polite society) and they brushed my hand aside to kiss me.  It shows lack of understanding about how women think/feel and also massive lack of good manners.  Of course, I wouldn’t expect you to understand that considering most people don’t even know what good manners look like.

      I did a quick survey amongst the women in my office because I was worried that after being single for so long, I might have just been a little too sensitive.  But all the women I polled said I was right to react that way and they said they would have reacted the same way.

      My apologies to you if I actually have rules about how someone should behave around me so I don’t feel creeped out and like my personal space is invaded.

    • pa_kelvin says:

      12:27pm | 11/07/12

      All you sickies stay home…and definitly DON’T fly ,keep of planes pleeaaase.

      Reply

    • Miss Jane says:

      12:30pm | 11/07/12

      But surely, if women are complaining like men, it must be bad!! smile

      Reply

    • Economist says:

      12:39pm | 11/07/12

      Yes it’s bad my HH has been fighting various flu like illnesses for over a month this winter so far. I even got whooping cough from a plane. Clearly my immunisations didn’t kick in.

      Hey people get your kids immunised.

    • marley says:

      12:57pm | 11/07/12

      @Economist - make sure your own shots are up to date.  The whooping cough starts to lose its potency after about five years, and is pretty much gone by ten.

    • Economist says:

      01:32pm | 11/07/12

      Marley, that would explain it. Probably over ten years since my last WC immunisation was undertaken. My bad. Still banned from the office for 3 days to ensure I didn’t infect any pregnant women. Then had to catch up the backlog.

    • TChong says:

      12:43pm | 11/07/12

      Influenza is gender specific?
      This new learning is truly amazing.
      Do tell , again, how sheeps bladders can be used to prevent earthquakes.

      Reply

    • Chris L says:

      12:53pm | 11/07/12

      People think no-one notices who doesn’t wash their hands in the toilets, but we do!

      Reply

    • Chris L says:

      01:44pm | 11/07/12

      Now that I think about it, washing hands in the toilets is bad. Hand basin is the way to go!

    • pa_kelvin says:

      03:23pm | 11/07/12

      with soap to. smile

    • Mahhrat says:

      12:58pm | 11/07/12

      It’s funny, you know, but my fiance, mum, grandma, daughter, two of the three nieces and my sister-in-law were all down with this “man flu” you speak of.

      Meanwhile, all the similarly significant men were and are fine.

      Funny how that works.

      If I can’t call it “Girl Drama”, you can’t call it “Man Flu”.

      Reply

    • Chris L says:

      01:46pm | 11/07/12

      Have you ever noticed which gender is the one to rush off to the doctor’s surgery for every sniffle they catch? (hint: it ain’t the menfolk)

    • fml says:

      02:37pm | 11/07/12

      A couple drams of single malt usually does the trick. grin

    • pa_kelvin says:

      03:05pm | 11/07/12

      @fml   A dram = 100mls….right? smile

    • fml says:

      03:34pm | 11/07/12

      @pa_kelvin,

      100mL = a wee dram
      200mL = a dram

      Any excuse… grin

    • Scotchfinger says:

      01:04pm | 11/07/12

      Personally I would love to be stuck at home with the flu, being handed cups of weak tea propped up in front of the box. Could someone please infect me please? i.e. a good-looking female puncher?

      Reply

    • Zeta says:

      01:33pm | 11/07/12

      Weird thing - I got the flu really bad in 2009, was laid up for two weeks with it, and I ended up getting Tamiflu because it was right in the middle of the Swine Flu epidemic.

      I haven’t had as much as a sniffle ever since. My partner, my entire office, and all of my friends have been getting sick this winter, and I haven’t so much as sneezed.

      I’ve therefore developed a theory that the Government have innoculated me against their lab made flu strains so that I can join the one per cent elite in their space faring arks when the final pandemic scrubs the globe free of humanity.

      Reply

    • fml says:

      02:40pm | 11/07/12

      Have they set a date for that yet?

      I should put it in my calendar so I don’t forget.

    • Sickemrex says:

      05:32pm | 11/07/12

      @fml, haven’t you received the email yet? They’re picking us up next Thursday.

    • Augustus Caesar says:

      01:43pm | 11/07/12

      What is it with people today? Have they really become so arrogant, so egotistical, so self-engrossed that they think that even one of their 100s, 1000s, 10s of 1000s maybe even millions of Facebook “Friends” give a toss about their petty little illnesses, personal dramas, relationship breakdowns?
      They don’t girls & boys, they simply don’t

      Reply

    • dancan says:

      02:04pm | 11/07/12

      I wish people here in Australia would be as responsible as those in Japan and actually take steps to stop flu’s from spreading like wearing face masks

      *cough, cough, cough, sneeze*
      “ewwww!”
      *cough, cough* “don’t worry I’m pretty sure I’m past contagious” *proceeds to sneeze everywhere*
      “oh god!”
      *hack, hack, cough*

      Reply

    • James1 says:

      02:31pm | 11/07/12

      Apparently covering your face is unAustralian or something.

    • William says:

      04:01pm | 12/07/12

      People would rather die than look like a dork. True I read it on Facebook so it must be.

    • Ally says:

      02:31pm | 11/07/12

      There’s a chick in my office that’s been coughing so much over the past week that it sounds like she’s about to spit up a lung. I’m torn between telling her to go home and just putting her out of her misery.

      During flu season I reckon you should have someone from HR coming around the cube farm telling sick people to go home. Nothing gives me the shits more than people dragging themselves into work like frigging martyrs, spending half the day drooping limply over their keyboard and the other half blowing their nose and telling anyone in earshot how sick they are but how they couldn’t possibly afford to be away from work.

      Reply

    • Michael S says:

      02:54pm | 11/07/12

      The casualisation of the workforce is only going to make this happen more often. Casuals don’t get sick pay, so to take any time off is a major blow to the hip pocket.
      Even permanent employees are often made to jump through hoops to access sick leave, or told that they are bludgers and rorters - with the effect that taking sick leave is more trouble than it’s worth.
      Ally mentions HR should be telling sick people to go home - what more often happens is that HR tell sick people at home that they are bludgers who are rorting the system.

      There’s a couple of people coughing and spluttering in my office. One’s a temp who wouldn’t get paid if she didn’t come in. The other one says that going to work while sick is less hassle than spending hours in a doctor’s waiting room for a certificate and copping a grilling from the boss about it.

    • Mrs Hix says:

      02:57pm | 11/07/12

      Mucus Troopers - I can’t stand them. If you really have that much work on, do it from home. Better yet, stop perpetuating the ‘soldier on’ culture that only serves to keep cold and flu tablets flying off the shelves, and stay at home and rest!

    • M says:

      03:32pm | 11/07/12

      If I don’t work I don’t get paid.

    • Ally says:

      03:33pm | 11/07/12

      Yeah, Michael S, it depends on where you’re working I suppose. Thankfully I’m at a workplace that gives you a number of “certificate free” sick days per year and will accept a stat dec in lieu of a certificate. So there’s really no excuse to drag yourself into work in my office. And yet people continue to do so and then everyone around them catches whatever they’ve got.

    • Lyla says:

      03:55pm | 11/07/12

      Urgh, there’s a girl at my office who also sounds like she’s about to die. Nasty-sounding cough.

      Michael S, I agree with you regarding access to sick leave. I worked for 10 years as a casual and rarely - if ever - called in sick because no work meant no pay.

      I now work full-time and the last time I took a day off sick (food poisoning) my work wouldn’t grant my sick leave because I didn’t take my vomiting self to the nearest clinic to get a doctor’s certificate. So my pay was docked for that week. Note - it was the first sick day I had ever taken in two and a half years of working there.

      So now I just work through colds and the like - I don’t consider a cold serious enough to waste a doctor’s time with, and I know now that unless I have a doctor’s certificate for every single time I call in sick, I won’t be getting leave paid out to me.

      Reply

    • Alfie says:

      03:56pm | 11/07/12

      It’s just situation normal: woman blames man for…..well, everything!!!

      Reply

    • Sam says:

      04:19pm | 11/07/12

      Checked the sick leave entitlements at the start of the year, 3 months, that should be enough for my toddlers first year of chidcare.. maybe.

      So far he has only given me 1 knock me n my butt illness this season, but with the number of carers days or work from home days looking after the poor little bugger, I wouldn’t be surprised if the neighbours thought I have changed to part-time.

      Reply

    • Sickemrex says:

      06:49pm | 11/07/12

      Cue the “you female breeders shouldn’t be working” brigade.

    • Rick with a silent P says:

      04:43pm | 11/07/12

      Women with man flu…............equalitiy gone mad, it’s never enough, you want our flu now , if we had some shit on a stick you’d want that as well.

      Reply

    • Ashlee says:

      05:23pm | 11/07/12

      Do you have shit on a stick?

    • PhilD says:

      08:28pm | 11/07/12

      Man flu, what next, man boobs?

    • flugirl says:

      04:46pm | 11/07/12

      Worked in places that send you home when with the flu then tear you down about taking 4 days sick leave that year during KPI’s! Most places are like this.  I’m at home with pneuamonia from flu now (dirty Sydney trains) and am working for an organisation that prefers you to work home when you are sick - only problem is that there are no boundaries around ‘sick leave’ and ‘working from home’.  Please stop ringing phone… i’m actually on sick leave! No, i’m not working from home - and can’t stand up!!!!!

      Reply

    • TugboatBen says:

      06:18pm | 11/07/12

      It’s not possible for women to get man flu. Or at least to get it and survive anyway. My wife thought she was getting man flu. Lucky for her it was diagnosed as only a bad case if tonsillitis. She got off lightly.

      Reply

    • Joe says:

      04:06pm | 12/07/12

      Been working 17 years don’t wash my hands much unless they are visibly dirty, don’t believe in flu shots (there are lots of strains out there other than the one in the flu shot) have had 2 sick days in that time and one of those was a hangover that dosn’t really count. Go figure.

      Reply
 
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