Don’t confuse carbon-monoxide poisoning for swine flu. consumerreports. January 04, 2009. "Dr. Carson Harris is always a little suspicious this time of year when patients come in with symptoms of the flu: headache, nausea, fatigue. They might think it’s swine flu, but it could be carbon monoxide poisoning. ‘The symptoms are so similar,’ said Harris, an emergency room physician at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. ‘It can look just like the flu.’ "That was the attention-grabbing opening to "Carbon Monoxide Can Cause Same Signs as Flu," an article by Maura Lerner that ran late last month on StarTribune.com. The story notes that with the heightened awareness of swine flu, Regions Hospital and the St. Paul Fire Department issued a public alert to help people distinguish between CO poisoning and the flu. [ See ]