From City and Province agree that there is a clear increase flu cases, “unusual for the time”. There is more gripe ahead of time and also more than in the last two years. When will they start vaccinating against the flu? Are we late for that immunization?
The first thing to understand is that, at the moment, there are no more cases than before from pandemic from Covid in the usual season for flu cases, fall and winter, but yes earlier cases and there are more infections than in 2020 and 2021, when this virus hardly circulated.
The second thing is that, as the Buenos Aires Minister of Health said, Fernan Quirosin the last two years practically no one was tested for the flu, whereas now they are.
The third point is that at the height of the coronavirus, as the Minister of Health of La Nación herself said, Carla Vizzottievery cold was covid until proven otherwise. Is every cold now the flu again?
From the Buenos Aires Ministry of Health they prefer not to be so blunt, “because there is still Covid”. But they mark that there is more cases of H3N2 flu.
This is a flu seasonal group A. The flu is either A or B. The one that put the world on edge a decade ago belonged to to group A H1N1. The vaccines of the last two years already contemplated the H3N2 type that is in the news today, that is, still serve.
“What you see is an unusual growth for the time of year. It may be due to the high rates of Covid vaccination, the circulation of that virus decreases and there is more influenza,” they tell Clarion. The same thing happened in Brazil, which in January registered cases of flurona, the coinfection between influenza and coronavirus.
are we then more susceptible to getting the flu?
“While it is true that if you have some degree of immunodeficiency you are more likely to have any infectious process, It is not that because of the Covid pandemic we are more sensitized to the flu. What does happen is that the first two years of the pandemic, with such a massive circulation of Covid and being a virus with a transmission capacity up to five times greater than that of the flu virus, the coronavirus became the protagonist and there was not so much flu“, details Elena Obieta, head of the Communicable Diseases service in the Municipality of San Isidro and member of the Argentine Society of Infectious Diseases (SADI).
“The flu doesn’t hit us harder”clarifies the infectologist and clarifies that we are more susceptible to the flu in the sense that in the pandemic “many people who had the criteria to be vaccinated against the flu, who were vaccinated every year, was not vaccinated“, mainly because it was not clear “how long to wait to give it to them after Covid or for fear that their turn would come.”
why the flu got ahead of the station?
“We were used to seeing it in the fall and winter. Now, with a highly vaccinated population, with Omicron predominant among Covid, we are detecting H3N2 flu since the end of January, beginning of February. So, now, every patient who is hospitalized for a severe pneumonia, regardless of whether or not you have been vaccinated against Covid, We must also investigate if it is not the flu”.
Given this warning, Obieta asks that the flu vaccine be given to the general population as soon as possible and that it be stressed that “There is no need to wait before or after a dose against Covid”.
The flu campaign
When will flu vaccination start? In the case of some prepaid, already from Monday itself; at the end of the month in the Province and from April in the City, which will meet this week to define if there will be shifts and if the Covid vaccination posts will be used to immunize against the flu.
For the moment, as they confirmed to this newspaper from the Ministry of Health of the Nation, the vaccination campaign is being armed.
“The vaccines have not yet been distributed to the jurisdictions. They are always delivered from mid-March,” they clarify, to mark that no delays. “We are waiting for the epidemiological update,” they indicate to graph that they are monitoring the curves.
“We identified an increase in cases of H3N2 flu that is unusual for this date of the year. It is something that has also happened in countries in the region such as Brazil. We have the commitment of the Ministry of Health of the Nation that at the end of this month the vaccine and we can start vaccinating against the flu. It is important that as soon as it is available we can get vaccinated“, said the Minister of Health of the Province, Nicholas Kreplak.
From that jurisdiction they detailed that “the first population that now has to be vaccinated for the flu is Health personnel and population at risk“; what there will be no shifts, but priority groups; and that it will be applied through the usual vaccination centers -municipal, CAPS and hospitals-.
Vaccination in prepaid and pharmacies
Some prepaid are already about to start the vaccination campaign. From Galen they anticipated Clarion that this Monday they will begin to apply the quadrivalent influenza vaccine in their vaccinations. It is free of charge for patients in home hospitalization, cancer patients, type 1 diabetics and patients with HIV. The rest of the partners will access a preferential valuethe benefit being greater in those over 65 years of age.
In Osde they told this newspaper that the anti-flu campaign will start on April 1, with 100% coverage in contracted centers, for those over 65 years of age and those who are in the risk group.
Regarding pharmacies, in Farmacity estimate the provision of doses for the end of March. The vaccine that they will apply will be the tetravalent one, and it will be necessary to take a shift through a digital turner for 71 branches and in the remaining ones it will be attended in person according to staff availability.
Who should be vaccinated
The flu vaccine It is not indicated for the entire population. Yes, babies between six and 24 months should receive it; adults older than 65 years; pregnant women in any trimester of pregnancy; health personnel; puerperal women within six months after delivery; and people between the ages of three and 64 with risk factors.
Keep in mind that the flu vaccine is contraindicated in people with manifest allergies to eggs or sensitive to thimerosal. Also in those who are experiencing an acute infection, such as Covid.
AS
