“I will not work today. I've been feeling bad for a few days. I was very tired, so I got a fever last night. It has been tested for COVID-19 and has been negative. I think I have the flu.” What Fabian R. Fabian in the bed of his home in Villa Crespo looks like hundreds of Argentines affected by a new influenza infection or flu that appears to have arrived earlier this year.
Although the Ómicron variants of coronavirus are spreading throughout the country, another virus usually affects autumn and winter also affects more people in the middle of summer. It is the influenza virus (also known as influenza virus), as warned by an alert from the Ministry of Health a few days ago.
Since 2020, after the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, there have been fewer seasonal influenza cases than the previous year. The official warning stated that “since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza virus activity has remained low Argentina”. However, since the first week of December until now, we have seen an increase in cases of influenza, especially influenza A H3N2. In general, seasonal influenza cases increase in Argentina between April and October each year. It's not January, February, or March.
“The landscape has changed significantly between last summer and current summer,” said Teresa Varela, Director of Epidemiological Surveillance and Outbreak Control at the Ministry of Health of Buenos Aires, Infopay. “The landscape has changed significantly between last summer and current summer,” said Teresa Varela, Director of Epidemiology Surveillance and Control of the Outbreak at the beginning of this year. “The flu season, which usually begins after March, is coming,” the official said.
“We have identified a rare increase in H3N2 influenza cases by this time. This is something that has actually happened in countries in regions like Brazil. We have a commitment from the National Ministry of Health that the vaccine will arrive by the end of the month and that we can start vaccinating against influenza, starting with health workers and organizations most at risk.”, said Nicolas Kripak, head of the health department of Buenos Aires.
CABA has also recorded an increase in influenza cases in recent weeks and confirmed that influenza vaccination will begin next month because influenza occurs earlier than usual. “Patents have changed, virus behavior has changed.
This year, we found the proportion of patients with respiratory diseases and severe fever that are more associated with the influenza virus, the influenza virus, in February and March.” At a regular press conference last Thursday, Minister of Health Fernanderos, said the city of Buenos Aires.
“We imagine that throughout this year everything will return as fast as we are used to, but in fact we have found a certain number of major cases of influenza throughout the year.” added.
Taking into account the cases of influenza detected this summer according to the age of those affected, the most common cases were those that ranked second in the beginning among children under five years of age and adolescents aged 25 to 34 years. The flu has not had the same effect across the country. The jurisdictions where the largest amount of samples was recorded are the cities of Buenos Aires, Salta, Santa Fe, Tucuman and Buenos Aires.
Influenza, a highly contagious respiratory viral disease in most cases, has mild symptoms with symptoms such as fever, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, head and muscle pain. However, some people may experience complications such as shortness of breath and pneumonia that require hospitalization. Two people died of influenza in Argentina in the second week of February.
Why did flu cases increase in mid-summer?
According to Infobae, infectiologist Pablo Bonvehi, director of infectious diseases at CEMIC, “the increase in influenza cases may be explained by several factors. In other countries in South America, such as Chile, Peru, Colombia and Brazil, cases with a subtype of influenza A H3N2″ have also increased.
This expert, a member of the Vaccine Committee of the Argentine Society for Infectious Diseases and the Scientific Committee of the Vaccine Foundation, added: “At the moment, it is not normal for the influenza virus to spread. It was also not normal for the virus to spread in 2020 and 2021, when the coronavirus cycle prevailed. Now influenza of subtype A H3N2 is beginning to spread, which prevailed in the Northern Hemisphere. Certainly, these changes are related to the fact that there are no other restrictions on traveling abroad. People who have not been in contact with the influenza virus in the past two years are more likely to get infected. There are also more cases of bronchiolitis and those affected by other respiratory viruses.”
At the same time, Lida Josie, of the Communications Committee of the Argentine Society for Infectious Diseases, explained to Infobae: “During the first two years of the pandemic, large-scale COVID-19 prevention measures such as wearing masks, confinement, spacing, ventilation, etc. have helped reduce Transmission of influenza virus and other respiratory viruses around the world. “However, since the end of last year, after the vaccination against COVID-19, the movement of citizens has become stronger and blood circulation has restored the influenza virus,” said an infection doctor at Olivos Clinic and Santa Rosa Hospital. I concluded that.
According to Dr. Gozi, health authorities' warnings relate to globalization through travel, which could lead to more cases of influenza A H3N2 in the Northern Hemisphere and the immediate emergence of the influenza virus in South America. “The important thing is epidemiological and genomic surveillance, and that people vaccinated against influenza receive adequate doses, such as children under 2 years of age, over 65 and others with risk factors.” He said.
كوفيد -19
Fever, dry cough, sore throat or chest pain and shortness of breath These are some of the symptoms that may indicate symptoms of COVID-19. However, it is not the only one, nor these symptoms are inherent in this disease. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, cough, and fatigue. However, there are many other signs and symptoms.
Both COVID-19 and colds are caused by the virus. COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, while the common cold is mostly caused by the nasal virus. These viruses spread similarly, causing many of the same signs and symptoms. However, there are some differences.
According to Mayo Clinic experts, COVID-19 symptoms usually appear 2 to 14 days after exposure to SARS-CoV-2, but cold symptoms usually appear 1 to 3 days after exposure to the virus that causes the cold.
Unlike COVID-19, colds are often harmless. Most people recover from a cold in 3 to 10 days, but some colds can last up to 2 to 3 weeks.
On the other hand, to distinguish between COVID-19 and allergies, among the most common symptoms of this type of condition that are not transmitted from person to person are itching, runny nose, sneezing, coughing and eye irritation.
The main difference between allergies and a virus is fever. In this sense, a body temperature above 38° C may indicate the presence of the virus. Similarly, a common allergy will not cause a sudden loss of smell and taste, a characteristic symptom of COVID-19.
COVID-19 can also cause shortness of breath or shortness of breath, but seasonal allergies generally do not cause these symptoms unless they have a respiratory disease such as asthma.
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