The autumn-winter season is a difficult time for public health. Flu and covid circulate at the same time and infect thousands of people.
Some end up in hospital in serious condition and many do not survive.
Dr. Ștefan Dascălu, a Romanian researcher at Oxford University in Great Britain, explained that you can die from both diseases.
The most dangerous diseases currently circulating in Romania. Researcher: “You can die from both”
The scientist explained in an interview for Newsweek Romania that one cannot talk about one of the two viruses as being less or more dangerous than the other. Both are at risk of death. We can protect ourselves with the vaccine, because there are currently sera for both types of virus.
Newsweek Romania: At this moment we could say which is more dangerous of the two viruses: covid or the flu?
Dr. Ștefan Dascălu, researcher at Oxford University in Great Britain. I don’t think we should say that one is more dangerous than the other. You can die from both diseases. I saw this very well.
Fortunately, the current form of COVID is much milder than what we had at the beginning of the pandemic, and basically because of this the mortality has dropped far below what it was before.
The flu, unfortunately, remains a very big danger, people die from the flu and today it is not an easy disease, but unlike COVID, against the flu, our body has a defense, because we have been exposed seasonally and /or by vaccination, to these strains and basically the antibodies and the immune response manage to defend us.
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This is true even if we do not encounter that infectious agent for a very long time, and we mean even several years. But our body had a basal immunity to the flu. Compared to COVID, it did not and the proof is, unfortunately, the very high mortality that we have seen at the peaks of the pandemic waves since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Ștefan Dascălu, researcher in immunology and theoretical epidemiology, Oxford University Photo: Facebook/ Ștefan Dascălu
The problem with the flu is different. Because it is much more mutagenic than the COVID virus, the potential for a new pandemic flu strain to emerge is very high.
For this very reason, when there are outbreaks of, for example, bird flu, which is a form of flu that circulates in birds, infections can easily jump to humans and be transmitted to humans. We, not being adapted, don’t have the exposure to bird flu that we have to the seasonal flu that circulates in humans, and so the consequences are much greater.
The pandemic potential of the flu is not negligible and at the same time the mortality that can be caused by a strain of flu virus to which our bodies have not been exposed is very high.
Newsweek: Are researchers on the lookout for any new flu mutations right now?
Dr. Stefan Dascălu: From the seasonal flu less. Seasonal viruses are constantly mutating so that every year the flu vaccine is updated to match the strains in circulation.
For this reason, the flu shot is not one that is given once or twice in a lifetime, ideally, like the one for the measles virus, which, fortunately for us, only one exposure manages to stimulate our immune response and to give us protection for the whole life.
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The flu virus, unlike measles, manages to evade our antibody response and thus cause us, once again, a form of illness.
We observe, similarly, that the COVID virus, unfortunately, has this tendency to evade the antibody response. We see epidemic waves continuing today, even at a much higher rate than we would have previously expected.
But here comes the fact that the virus has not circulated in the population until now and this seasonal cycle has not yet stabilized. Until this is done, the COVID virus will unfortunately continue to spread, causing various forms of illness, but hopefully not as severe as those seen at the beginning of the pandemic.
Newsweek: Besides Pirola, BA.2.86, is there another variant of the coronavirus that deserves the attention of specialists?
Dr. Stefan Dascălu: There are no strains, or if there are, they have not yet been identified, we hope that they will not exist in the future. But we have no reason to believe that a new Delta variant of the COVID virus is coming, at least in the near future, precisely because the forms of the disease and global monitoring do not indicate such things.
Read also: “Long Covid”. What does the disease make of the infected. Researchers are trying to find out what the remedies are
Newsweek: Can covid and flu vaccines be given at the same time?
Dr. Stefan Dascălu: There is no contraindication from this perspective. The immune system develops independently in both vaccine administrations. There is no need to wait X number of days in between, at least in normal cases. Of course, certain patients with certain comorbidities should follow their doctor’s advice and how these vaccines should be administered for their specific cases. But in general, for a healthy individual who has been vaccinated and/or has been exposed to the disease, there are no contraindications.
How many cases of flu have been confirmed so far in the autumn-winter season
According to the latest report of the National Institute of Public Health, in the week of 13.11.2023 – 19.11.2023 (S46/2023) the following were reported:
– 79,117 cases of respiratory infections (clinical flu, IACRS and pneumonia), registering 18.4% fewer cases compared to the same week of the previous season (96,996) and 14% more cases compared to the previous week (69,391)
– 125 cases of clinical flu nationwide, compared to 430 cases in the same week of the previous season.
– In the week of 13.11.2023-19.11.2023 (S 46) the surveillance of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARS) began. Two cases were registered, two less than the same period of the previous season.
Photo: Freepik.com
– three cases of laboratory-confirmed influenza were reported (1 with non-subtyped A virus, 1 with AH1 virus and 1 with influenza B virus).
Since the start of the season have been reported:
– 17 laboratory-confirmed cases of influenza, of which:
– 4 cases with AH1 influenza virus
– 4 cases with AH3 influenza virus
– 5 cases with influenza B virus
– 4 cases with non-subtyped influenza A virus
– 1 influenza virus co-infection with SARS-CoV-2.
So far, no confirmed deaths from the flu virus have been reported.
Until 19.11.2023, a number of 870,880 people vaccinated against influenza were registered in the National Electronic Register of Vaccinations (RENV), of which 851,690 are from the population groups that benefit from settlement under the compensated regime.
Over 3,500,000 Romanians, infected with COVID so far
The latest Covid-19 report sent by the Ministry of Health shows that between 13 and 19 November 2023, 1305 new cases of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) were registered.
423 of the new cases in the last week are of reinfected patients who tested positive more than 90 days after the first infection.
Photo: Freepik.com – illustrative role
Until now, on the territory of Romania, 3,502,498 cases of infection with SARS-CoV-2 have been registered. The incidence recorded at 14 days is 0.14.
In specialized health units, the number of people hospitalized in wards with COVID-19 is currently 390. Also, at ATI, 46 people are hospitalized.
In the interval 13.11.2023 (10:00) – 19.11.2023 (10:00) 23 deaths (11 men and 12 women) were reported by the National Institute of Health and Welfare. In total, in Romania, 68,613 people died of COVID.
Between November 13 and 19, 2023, 2,647 RT-PCR tests and 19,065 rapid antigen tests were performed. Until this date, at the national level, 13,959,913 RT-PCR tests and 14,357,155 rapid antigen tests have been processed.
2023-11-28 06:02:12
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