Two respiratory diseases at the same time can be problematic

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As the world continues to grapple with the novel coronavirus pandemic, another infectious respiratory disease is already looming: influenza. The combined burden of the illness and COVID-19 could overwhelm hospitals and testing sites.
Belize’s Ministry of Health is preparing for the upcoming flu season. Health personnel were retrieving the flu vaccines from an airport on Thursday.
The Ministry of Health had already developed its influenza protocol, even before COVID-19 had arrived in Belize. Such a plan has proved helpful in addressing COVID-19.
Those who are at risk for serious flu complications need to take a flu vaccine since it is the best way to prevent the flu. The vaccine will soon be available free of cost at all public health centers. The Ministry of Health has reminded the public every year during the flu season that persons at risk for serious flu complications include young children; pregnant women; people with chronic health conditions such as diabetes, asthma and HIV, and people 65 years and older.
It takes some time for our immune system to recognize and respond to the flu vaccine, and those responses last for a long time. On average, the antibodies produced by an individual’s immune response to a flu shot takes two weeks to develop and, though there is no definitive timeline, can last for about four to six months—given that a person’s immunity depends on many factors, from their own immune system function to the virulence of the flu strain. And the immune system can maintain a “memory” of the vaccine for more than a year that can “reawaken and contribute to protection against a severe infection.
In this flu season that’s coming, it’s even more important to get a flu shot because it’s going to be hard to tell the difference between flu and COVID, considering that the two diseases have similar symptoms. Because of that problem, people who get the flu might needlessly stay quarantined or get tested for COVID-19 as a precaution. Therefore, widely vaccinating against influenza can reduce unnecessary COVID-19 testing and protect vulnerable people: those whose immune systems have been compromised by either of the two illnesses are at greater risk of contracting a more severe case of the other one. Anything to do with reducing the risk of respiratory disease is going to be important.
Both Influenza and COVID-19 are spread by respiratory droplets via a cough or sneeze. It takes one to four days between when you are first infected and start to see symptoms for influenza and two to 14 days incubation time for COVID-19. In influenza the symptoms are fever, chills, cough, muscle aches, fatigue, vomiting and diarrhea whilst in COVID-19 there are symptoms of common fever, cough, fatigue, shortness of breath. Additionally, for COVID-19 there are body aches, nasal congestion, diarrhea and loss of smell and taste.
As for COVID-19, the global coronavirus death toll could hit two million before an effective vaccine is widely used, the World Health Organization has warned.
Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergency head, said the figure could be even higher without concerted international action.
The number of COVID-19 deaths is fast approaching one million – nine months after the outbreak started in China.
In his most recent assessment of COVID-19 Dr. Marvin Manzanero, Director of Health Services says the numbers keep changing.
“I think what we are looking for beyond just total figures in a given day; we are looking at percentages in a given day, rates then. And I know that we had been having, in August, rates of greater than thirty percent in some given days. That has decreased for sure, during the first days of September we had rates of less than ten percent. Of course, there have been two days over the last week where we have gone back to almost twenty percent rates.”
He continued, “So it is still doing what we would call a yoyo effect in terms of total numbers. When you plot it because that’s what you need to do, it has plateaued; it’s certainly not going as a spike way up high. But the only way you are going to have that curve beyond just flattening and starting to take a downward trend, it’s if you have decreasing rates as you move along. And as I said, we are not necessarily seeing decreasing rates when you have one or two days in the week that spike up. But overall, when you compare it week by week, there is a trend that has deceased when you compare it to four, five weeks ago.”
In her recent Keynote Address for “COVID-19, Vulnerability, and the Urgent Need for Access to Finance in Small States” co-hosted by AOSIS and the Commonwealth Secretariat, Senator Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett said that we were able to keep our COVID-19 numbers low early on, however, the present situation is vastly different as we have had a very sharp rise in cases in the last two months, largely as a result of movement across our porous borders.
Thus, experts agree for us all to make a plan to get a flu shot to protect ourselves and those around us. The answer to the question ‘Why should we get a flu vaccine?’ is the same this year as it is every year.
But there are some additional reasons why it’s extra beneficial to get the flu shot this year. Influenza can have dire consequences ranging from loss of productivity to death. We should do everything we can to prevent the flu, and the shot is the best way we can do that. In addition to protecting ourselves, a flu shot also helps protect other family members who may be more vulnerable to respiratory diseases.
While we don’t have a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, we do have tools to limit the impact of influenza. The complications caused by the co occurrence of both debilitating conditions in any given community can be brought to a minimum.