“We are seeing a huge demand for assistance from patients: we have a lot of them sick due to influenza viruses, especially the younger ones.
This year, the seasonal epidemic is a very concentrated curve: in one week, as many people get sick as before” Covid “2 of them got sick”. Claudio Cricelli, president of the Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care (Simg), reported this to Adnkronos Salute, regarding the large increase in flu cases.
Fortunately, Cricelli observes, "the elderly are very vaccinated and have learned to protect themselves, so they get sick less. This is a positive fact that confirms the effectiveness of vaccination. The flu arrives with the usual symptoms: a high fever with chills, joint pain, fatigue.
It lasts a few days, there is no need to be alarmed, unless you are dealing with a vulnerable person, elderly or with particular symptoms. In these latter cases the doctor must intervene promptly. Otherwise, normal symptomatic drugs are used and, above all, no antibiotics”.
The winter peak, Cricelli recalls, “is expected early this year, between the end of December and the beginning of January, and this is evident precisely because so many people are getting sick all at once”. The rapid spread of the virus is linked to the fact that “there is less protection, people no longer use masks or other precautions. We are approaching the Christmas holidays, people are moving around a lot.
What we want to remind, especially to the elderly and frail, is that the flu is caught in crowded places. And if you want to protect yourself, the suggestion is to use a mask in very busy places”, concludes Cricelli.
The Flu alarm? “It's normal that it's there, we haven't seen it for over 2 years. The latest Influnet data tell us that it's hitting children under 5 a lot, with an incidence of 40 cases per 1.000 patients, slightly ahead of the numbers we see at the end of December-beginning of January. But we must also understand that in the 'Flu cauldron' other parainfluenza viruses also end up, the syncytial ones and even human coronaviruses like Oc43 that has been among us for a hundred years and brings us colds.
At this point the advice is that, if cases increase, perhaps I would keep the mask on public transport and in crowded places, especially for the elderly and the frail. Without reintroducing the obligation as they are thinking of in France, but recommending it”.
Article published on 5 December 2022 - 14:05
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