Football fan, 26, faints on an airplane and nearly causes his flight to divert after being struck down with the killer 'Aussie flu'
- Anthony Joseph lost consciousness during a flight from Aberdeen to London
- Flight attendants discussed whether they needed to divert the plane to Leeds
- Mr Joseph said his 2-week battle with H3N2, known as Aussie flu, was 'horrible'
- It began on Boxing Day, when he went to Dundee to watch Celtic play football
A football fan fainted on an airplane and nearly caused a mid-flight emergency after being struck down with the killer 'Aussie flu' that is sweeping the UK.
Anthony Joseph, 26, who lives in south east London, suddenly took a turn for the worse when he was flying back from his home town Aberdeen.
He began to sweat heavily, his vision became blurry and his face was 'roasting' before he lost consciousness during the 90-minute trip.
Flight attendants were discussing whether they needed to divert the plane to Leeds when he came back round moments later, he claims.
Mr Joseph described his two-week battle with H3N2, or Aussie flu, as 'horrible'. It began on Boxing Day, when he went to Dundee to watch Celtic play football.
At first he assumed his symptoms were just 'man flu' - but in the following days he started to cough up blood and would wake up to 'buckets of sweat' in his bed.
Anthony Joseph, 26, who lives in south east London, suddenly took a turn for the worse when he was flying from Aberdeen back home at the end of December
Mr Joseph said: 'Now, I feel like I’ve fully recovered. I do still feel like I get tired more easily than usual but I’m slowly getting my full energy back.
'The only word to describe what I had is horrible. I had a few incidents but I’m lucky to have recovered from it and I am back to normal routine.'
It comes as cases of flu have rocketed by 35 per cent in the space of a week in the UK, with H3N2 now getting into its full-swing.
The known death toll across the home nations currently sits at 97, with more fatalities expected in the coming weeks as the virus reaches its peak.
Mr Joseph claims his ordeal began in the run-up to Christmas, when he went home to Scotland to spend the festive period with his family.
He said: 'For a good few days I was doing okay - it must have been the adrenaline and excitement of being home for Christmas.
'On reflection, if it wasn’t Christmas and I wasn’t back in hometown with friends and family, I’d have probably been in bed those days.'
But it wasn't until Boxing Day, when he made the trip to Dundee to watch Celtic play football, that the killer virus took its toll on Mr Joseph.
He added: 'I knew it was a becoming a fever but tried to fight it and just keeping, knowing that it was the last day of the festivities for me.
'After returning from the football I went straight to a friend’s housewarming party. It was there where it started to go south.
Flight attendants were discussing whether they needed to divert the plane to Leeds when he came back round moments later (Mr Joseph was handed a bottle of water, meant to be for crew only, when he regained consciousness)
Mr Joseph, who works for MailOnline, didn't suffer from any symptoms until he made the trip to Dundee to watch Celtic play on Boxing Day (he is pictured with friends ahead of Celtic's match against Aberdeen on December 23)
'I was shivering in the house, actually shaking with how cold I was. I tried to have a cup of tea to warm me up but even that didn’t do the trick.
'I was so tired and knackered and my body was aching. I had to call my brother to pick me up and take me home.'
When Mr Joseph returned home, his temperature breached 40°C (104°F) - which is often the sign of an underlying infection.
He revealed his fever 'wouldn't go away'. Mr Joseph added: 'The days that followed were just horrible. I couldn't get out of bed.
'I was sweating buckets night and day - I literally had a puddle on my pillow at times. My legs and arms were soaking with sweat as well, it was disgusting.
'My asthma was playing and I was constantly coughing. I still just felt like it was just bad man flu - nothing more serious.'
Mr Joseph had to cancel his flight back to London and subsequently missed a few days of work at his Kensington-based office.
After a few days, his fever became 'on and off', rather than constant, and he felt that he was okay to fly back home.
Mr Joseph, who works for MailOnline, described his two-week battle with H3N2, commonly referred to as Aussie flu, as 'horrible' (pictured with work colleagues at their Christmas party)
At first he assumed his symptoms were just 'man flu' - but he soon started to cough up blood (pictured with a friend during a night out in Aberdeen on December 23)
But during the flight, he took a turn for the worse and he began to start feeling 'really drowsy'. His face was also roasting - even though he felt like he was 'freezing'.
Mr Joseph said: 'My vision was starting to go all blurry. I called a flight attendant, who said I didn’t look and she gave me water.
'She asked me to come to the front of the plane and it was then that I fainted. It was more embarrassing than anything else.
'But when I came round again I could hear the flight attendants discussing whether they needed to land at Leeds.'
Mr Joseph reassured them that he was okay and he would be fine for the duration of the flight.
Upon his return to his one-bedroom flat, he went straight to bed and spent most of his day there.
He was unable to make his shift on New Year's Eve - even though he was feeling a little better in himself. He returned on New Year's Day.
But on January 2 he was sent to hospital after a phone call with his GP and a visit to the nurse at his work after coughing up blood all morning.
Mr Joseph checked in to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital A&E, where he spent seven hours having a chest X-ray, swabs and blood tests.
He said: 'It was there that I was told I had this strain [H3N2], which has been dubbed Aussie flu. I was told to just go home and rest and stay away from people.
I' went to my GP the next, who felt I was on the right road to recovery and that I had probably seen the worst of it.
'He signed me off work for nearly another week and told me to avoid contact with people as much as possible until 48 hours after my fever had gone.'
Eventually his symptoms started to fade by January 6.
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