Bye bye Covid-19, Hello flu

Maybe its a little to early to say bye bye Covid-19, but its definitely time to say hello flu according to health professionals in Spain.

According to Dr. José Luis Almudí, Primary Care Physician and President of the College of Physicians of Valladolid flu is back, with the influenza virus having been detected since early March.He told LaSexta that this time around its different with the traditional flu season being December to March, but this year flu has arrived much later than usual.

He said: “We usually begin to see flu cases in mid-December and then at the end of January and at the beginning of February they began to drop. But for the last two years we have seen no cases due to the pandemic.

“Right now, in the last 20 days we are seeing the flus that we have not seen either this winter or last. Flu cases in the month of March are above expectations and outside the usual season. It is not that it is rare to see flu in March, but it is exceptional.”

Sources within the health sector say that although cases are appearing they are not doing so in numbers anywhere like those seen prior to the pandemic. As in the case with coronavirus flu epidemics occur when the numbers infected exceed 50 per 100,000 inhabitants, an infection rate they say is still far away.

Castilla y Leon and Catalomia were the first two communities to report cases but in both instances Covid-19 infections far outnumber those of flu, prompting the same sources to say that the arrival of flu is not yet cause for concern.

Hospital admissions are on the rise though with La Gaceta de Salamanca, reporting that in some hospitals such as the one in the capital of Tormes, there are more hospitalised with flu (34) than for COVID-29 (29).

The National Influenza Center of Valladolid tweeted on March 15: “Señr@s, well, like this, suddenly, we have an #flu epidemic. In week 10/2022 #CastillayLeón the incidence rate exceeds 50 cases/100,000 inhabitants”.

Almudí says: “At this time, where we are seeing more cases of influenza is in children and unvaccinated adults, not in older people.

He adds the most common symptoms are high fever, general malaise and dry cough.

“And we also know that it is influenza A because in the cases in which sequencing has been done, it has been seen that it is the one that is circulating the most now.”

He finished by saying we are seeing more flu cases in children and unvaccinated adults

According to the latest report of ‘Sentinel Surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infection in Primary Care (ARI) and in Hospitals (SARI) Influenza, COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses’, published yesterday, March 24, confirms the upward trend of recent weeks:

“All surveillance indicators indicate an increase in the circulation of influenza viruses.”

The number of positive samples has not yet skyrocketed despite the higher incidence of hospital cases.

Protect yourself from flu

Anti COVID-19 measures were effective in keeping flu at bay, Dr Almudi explains. He says: “Thanks above all to the mask (and good vaccination coverage) there has hardly been any flu.

“The mask is the most important element to prevent the transmission of all respiratory diseases that are transmitted through the air -through aerosols- such as the flu, the respiratory syncytial virus (which affects the smallest), the colds and COVID.

This is one of the reasons why health authorities have maintained the use of masks indoors, especially in the company of vulnerable people. Masks are believed to prevent many respiratory infections.

Almudi concludes: “It is important that when we have a respiratory process, regardless of COVID-19, which can be a cold, flu or any other, we have a responsibility towards the community to put on a mask to prevent the transmission of these viruses.”

As we say hello flu, health professionals recommend that everyone continues to follow the same sanitary habits that have helped to keep us safe from Covid-19, use of masks, hand washing and sanitising.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article, do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.