“Composite COVID-19”: How influenza epidemics affect pandemics depends on vaccines | Coronavirus

The flu season is approaching as temperatures cool across Michigan.

of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention People over the age of 6 months are advised to be vaccinated against the flu annually by the end of October.

This year, the medical community is becoming more urgent to encourage the general public to get vaccinated early. Frank RosenblattSince 1995, DO, an infectious disease specialist at McLaren Oakland Hospital in Pontiac, is one of the healthcare professionals talking about concerns about seasonal flu and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

There are three main ways influenza can “worse” the coronavirus pandemic. This phrase is often used, but hasn’t been explained much in the last few weeks.

There is no empirical evidence that influenza exacerbates COVID-19 infection, medically and biologically. However, there is widespread evidence that when a pathogen damages a person’s respiratory system, it increases the risk of developing another respiratory illness.

“We know this especially from influenza patients who can develop bacterial pneumonia. The airways are so devastated that they usually resist pathogens that can invade the airways and lungs. I don’t have the immunity, “Rosenblatt said. “It is assumed that one virus reduces the defense of the area and makes it more susceptible to infection with another pathogen.”

Second, there are concerns about how the particularly bad flu season affects the public health system.

Rosenblatt said in his opinion that the flu predictions are better than this year. This may be due to social distances and the amount of masks worn around the world. Due to the influenza epidemic in the Southern Hemisphere before Hampshire in the north, healthcare professionals are helping to measure the severity of seasonal influenza in countries such as Australia. In Australia, 132,000 people were diagnosed with influenza between January 2019 and the end of June 2019. From January 2020 to June 2020, only 21,000 were diagnosed. According to ABC News Australia..

“I know America is another country, but if some social distance and masking continue, even if it’s moderate, it’s not, if possible. Hope, Rosenblatt said.

This is important because the wave of influenza patients in hospitals across the country has a significant impact on the healthcare system. Rosenblatt compared it to spring, when the hospital was “dangerously” approaching before the armor was gone. I’m also worried about the lack of medium used to carry the virus when testing for COVID-19 and influenza. This is the same for both tests.

Finally, the symptoms of influenza and COVID-19 are similar, making it difficult to diagnose either of the patients without proper testing.

“During the summer, we could usually safely say to those who have symptoms of being more likely to be infected with the coronavirus. In the fall and winter, the flu epidemic I understand. I am confident that this will reduce current diagnostic ability and lead to overtreatment in some patients. “

Like patients being treated for influenza when they really have COVID-19. As far as researchers now know, treatments for both diseases are incompatible and do not affect other viruses.

Rosenblatt said it is recommended that people with weakened immunity be vaccinated with the general public as early as possible this season. It can take up to two weeks for the antibody to start functioning in the body, which is being noticed by patients year after year.

“It’s a common myth and we always hear it.” I got the flu vaccine two years ago and got the flu, but it’s from the vaccine. It turns out, “it doesn’t happen,” Rosenblatt said. “It’s impossible. It can’t happen. You can’t get the flu with a vaccine. It can take up to two weeks to work, so if you got both the vaccine and the flu, you had a contract before the vaccine went into effect. Your body didn’t have enough time to boost the immune response. “

According to the CDC, influenza vaccine complications are rare, for example Guillain-Barré syndrome, a disease in which an individual’s immune system damages nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. It is estimated that approximately 3,000 to 6,000 people develop the syndrome each year, regardless of national vaccination coverage.