As the Northern Hemisphere heads into winter, whether a fever and cough mean the flu or Covid-19 is a nerve-racking guessing game. There is, however, a silent killer that causes similar symptoms and could be lurking in your home.

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that's produced when a fossil fuel — coal, crude oil or natural gas — is burned by furnaces, portable heaters, vehicles, stoves, grills, gas ranges or fireplaces.

Breathing in too much of it can poison you, leading to symptoms including headache, upset stomach, dizziness, weakness, vomiting, chest pain and confusion, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — mimicking the symptoms of the flu or Covid-19.

• Online poker pro Olivier Busquet took down the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open, defeating Jeremy Brown heads-up. Ivan Mamuzic finished third.
• Total life earnings: $721,545. Latest cash: $1,700 on 26-Oct-2020. Click here to see the details of Jeremy Brown's 71 cashes.

Brown eliminated the next three players (Keith Crowder in 5th, Yanick Brodeur in 4th, and Ivan Mamuzic in 3rd), and heads-up play began with a nearly 3-to-1 chip lead for Brown over Busquet. Brown was acting very arrogant, as if victory was imminent, and downing a lot of drinks along with his friends on the rail. Dolores Courtney (often called and credited as 'Miss Courtney') is the main antagonist of Mind Your Language. She is played by Zara Nutley. Miss Courtney is the principal of the school at which Jeremy Brown teaches an EFL (English as a foreign language) class. When she first meets him, she tells him that she prefers women teachers and is very disappointed that the local education authority.

Inhaling high concentrations can make you pass out or kill you, especially if you are sleeping, drunk or belong to a group that's at high-risk for serious illness and death from different diseases and exposures. Carbon monoxide can also poison your pets.

'Influenza and (Covid-19) hijack the cells, mostly in lungs, where they reproduce and that's where the main damage is often done' and where symptoms stem from, said Dr. Jeremy Brown, an emergency care physician and author of 'Influenza: The Hundred-Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History.'

Carbon monoxide, on the other hand, poisons people by hooking onto hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body.

'The carbon monoxide comes along and kicks the oxygen off the hemoglobin,' Brown said. 'What you start to have are signs of a lack of oxygen.'

Over 20,000 Americans annually visit the emergency room for carbon monoxide exposure, over 4,000 are hospitalized and over 400 die. Since many are now at home almost 24/7, it's certainly possible that emergency doctors will 'see more carbon monoxide exposure than usual' — especially if we have a harsh winter and rely more on heating, Brown said.

Inadvertent poisoning 'can be stopped by practicing safe behaviors,' said Scott A. Damon, health communication lead at the CDC's Asthma & Community Health Branch.

Read on to learn the common causes of exposure, how you can prevent it, how to know what's causing your symptoms and the potential treatments.

Preventing exposure and poisoning

Carbon monoxide exposure is the byproduct of incomplete combustion, Brown said — when the oil in appliances or vehicles is heated but doesn't burn completely. Blocked ventilation systems and running portable generators in confined spaces or on boats without proper ventilation can also lead to buildup.

Additionally, 'these are the months when people may warm up a vehicle inside an attached garage, which is extremely dangerous' even with the garage open, Damon said. That's because the fumes can seep into your house.

The most important way to be able to tell whether symptoms are from carbon monoxide exposure is to install a carbon monoxide detector, Brown said. Since carbon monoxide sinks, having one in your basement is critical, but the potential for exposure on every floor means you should also have detectors installed in the main living areas and in or near bedrooms so you can be woken up by an alarm while sleeping.

Install and test battery-operated detectors and check and replace batteries twice a year when you change your clock, the CDC recommends. And consider buying a detector with a digital readout that also shows the level of concentration in the home.

'Check the manufacturer's instructions on when to replace the detector itself,' Damon said.

Your smoke detector should indicate whether it can also detect carbon monoxide. Levels higher than one to 70 parts per million can cause symptoms.

What's the source of your symptoms?

Jeremy Brown Poker Drunk Gif

If you or your family are experiencing even mild symptoms and carbon monoxide poisoning is possible, your best bet is to get everyone to a safe environment and get checked out by a medical professional, Brown said, especially if you belong to a high-risk group.

But could it be the flu? Having received an influenza shot doesn't guarantee that you don't have the flu since flu vaccines, even when they match the viruses circulating, reduce the risk of illness by 40% to 60%.

A process of elimination will allow emergency care doctors to figure out if you have Covid-19, the flu or carbon monoxide poisoning, Brown said.

'One of the ways in which carbon monoxide differs from (Covid-19) and from influenza is that if you step outside and get some fresh air, your symptoms will slowly dissipate' over the next several hours if your exposure was minimal, Brown said. If someone feels better outside but symptoms creep up at home, that could be a sign of poisoning.

If it's possible that you've been exposed in your home, a doctor can administer a blood test to measure your carbon monoxide level, Brown added.

Jeremy Brown Poker Drunk Video

Potential treatments

If a doctor suspects poisoning, Brown said, you'll receive an oxygen mask that would deliver about five times more oxygen to your body than is available in the atmosphere. The doctor would then keep an eye on you for up to several hours and check your carbon monoxide level until you can be discharged — 'with the instructions not to return to the place where they were exposed and to make sure that no one else is in that place either,' Brown said.

A qualified service technician should check your appliances before you reuse them.

For those with severe poisoning, symptoms can worsen into shortness of breath, comatose state or muscle rigidity, Brown said. That person would be admitted to the hospital for prolonged oxygen therapy.

Patients even worse off would be put in a dive chamber, a highly pressurized vessel or room where they would receive up to 'about three times the amount of pressure that is on the surface as we walk around,' Brown said. 'That will force the oxygen into the tissues and displace the carbon monoxide poisoning.'

Recovery and staying safe

How long recovery takes is a sliding scale depending on the levels of exposure and sickness, Brown said. If people can get to the hospital fast enough, carbon monoxide can be rapidly removed from the body. Complete recovery can happen if the body isn't damaged from the lack of oxygen.

In some cases, severe exposure could mean delayed and long-term cognitive effects up to a month after the incident.

Protection comes 'down to making sure that whatever heating system you have — if it involves gas or heating oil — is properly maintained, that the flues are all clean and that you have a carbon monoxide detector,' Brown said. 'That is the basic, most important way to make sure that you remain safe over the winter.'

The six-handed final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open is set. Leading the way is Olivier Busquet, who holds 10.3 million chips. His stack is double that of the next closest competitor, Yanick Brodeur.

Michael Brown was the final table bubble boy in the $3,500 buy-in tournament, falling in seventh place and earning $117,000. Brown shoved with pocket eights from middle position, but was met with Jeremy Brown’s A-K. In a classic race situation, the board ran out Q-10-7-J-6, giving Jeremy Brown a straight and sending Michael Brown to the rails. The former told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman when play concluded, “I like to run my mouth a little bit. I try to get under their skin and see if I can get them on tilt a little bit.”

Michael Brown served as the executioner of Steve Brecher, who won the WPT’s Bay 101 Shooting Star event in March for $1 million. Brecher shoved with 9-4 after a flop of J-9-2, but Brown called and showed J-6 for top pair. The turn and river both came kings and Brecher was ousted from the Borgata Poker Open. He earned $39,000 for his efforts and missed out on his third WPT final table. Many longtime poker players remember Brecher’s sixth place finish during the Season II WPT Championship, which earned him $232,000.

The field became a little quieter when Maurice Hawkins departed in 13th place. Hawkins pushed pre-flop with A-Q for 50 big blinds, but ran into Busquet’s pocket aces. The board ran out five cards 10 or lower, providing no help to Hawkins, who banked $28,000 for his efforts. After the chips were counted to ensure that Hawkins was indeed eliminated, he exited the Borgata poker room. WPT coverage noted that Hawkins “rose to prominence in this tournament late in Day 3 as he took the chip lead and busted quite a few players in the process. He was lively at the table and very talkative, but it just wasn’t meant to be today.”

While Busquet’s aces held up, some players at the Borgata Poker Open were not as fortunate, including Jason Warriner, who saw his pocket rockets go down in flames against J-8. Warriner shoved on a board of 10-9-5-7 and Hawkins happily called, turning over the nuts. Warriner was drawing dead to the river and found himself on the outside looking in. He earned $12,000 for his 21st place showing.

Busquet helped his cause by cracking aces with A-K. The flop came A-10-4, leaving Busquet calling for a running Q-J, which promptly hit. Eric Blair was eliminated in eighth place in the hand, which boosted Busquet’s chip stack to 4.5 million, double his total entering it. The day began with 27 players taking to the felts. When the smoke cleared, just six remained:

1. Olivier Busquet – 10,350,000
2. Yanick Brodeur – 5,780,000
3. Ivan Mamuzic – 5,655,000
4. Jeremy Brown – 5,480,000
5. Keith Crowder – 2,750,000
6. Kenny Nguyen – 600,000

The following prizes are up for grabs, including a $925,000 first place payday and a seat into the 2010 WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas:

1st Place: $925,514
2nd Place: $453,519
3rd Place: $251,955
4th Place: $216,681
5th Place: $188,126
6th Place: $156,212

The action resumes at 4:00pm ET and is open to the general public. When play ended for the night on Wednesday, blinds were 60,000-120,000 with a 10,000 chip ante. The tournament will air as part of Season VIII of the WPT on Fox Sports Net.