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In 2003 I had a very severe respiratory illness which included a bit of pneumonia and a deep, long-lasting cough that left my ribs very sore. My son had pneumonia when he was six weeks old. I don't know if either were RSV but I know we are both very susceptible to respiratory illnesses. I'll ask my provider if the RSV vaccine is available when I get my fall flu shot. Thanks for the info!

BTW in the US we are authorized to get the shingles jab (the good one) at age 60 via VA. Not sure what Medicare offers. I'm surprised they wait so late in the UK.

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That could have been aftermath of an ordinary cold, pertussis (whooping cough in adults is like what you describe, often mistaken for a bad cold), RSV or a secondary infection with mycoplasma after a cold. There may be other possible causes I don't know about. I'm not a doctor. But I've had similar misery more than once myself and hope you never have it again. It's awful, isn't it?

When the first COVID vaccines emerged, a cousin who is a doctor recommended that all of us in the family who were age 50+ should make sure to be vaccinated against shingles. Doctors were seeing a lot of shingles in the wake of COVID vaccinations. My USA relatives in that age bracket mostly already had Shingrix, the two-dose high-effectiveness jab. I had to go private to get jabbed against shingles, and I wanted Shingrix which is not the standard here. MHRA had only approved it in the UK a couple of months earlier. Most private clinics thought it was still not allowed. A few in London offered it. I didn't want the potential exposure of travel to London. After much effort, I found a private clinic in Liverpool that was willing to special order the serum if I paid for both doses up front, so I did, and carefully scheduled those doses and my first two COVID vaccinations in the appropriate sequence at the right intervals. It was a hassle. I'm glad I did it. Vaccines are wondrous.

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