Unusual for April: Flu sidelines coronavirus, nearly 300,000 flu-like cases registered

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In one week, 8,245 cases of flu have been officially reported in Serbia, according to the records of the National Institute of Public Health Batut, which is quite unusual for early April.

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In previous seasons, except for the last one, in which we did not even have a laboratory-confirmed flu virus in circulation, at this time of year hardly even sporadic cases would be registered, while the flu season usually ends in March. Now, there is more flu than coronavirus and it seems to cause more severe symptoms, Novosti writes.

To anyone who has gotten the flu virus in the last two or three weeks since it has started to spread faster, a previous condition caused by Omicron now looks like "child's play." High fever, which cannot be brought down for days even with drugs, a sense of weakness of the whole body are the most common symptoms that patients complain of, say doctors who in many cases had to prescribe antibiotics to flu patients due to complications, mainly bronchitis and sinusitis.

The Batut Institute says that since the beginning of the season until now, 271,543 cases of flu-like illnesses have been reported through population monitoring. According to Batut's statistics, that is a higher number of patients compared to the previous two flu seasons.

"Influenza-like illness rates may be caused by non-influenza respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV-2, leading to a marked increase in the reported number of people with influenza-like illnesses. In the last reporting week, a slight increase in the number of cases was registered among those over 65, in other groups it is declining," Batut said.

Dr. Radmilo Petrovic, an epidemiologist, says that this is logical, because immunity decreases with age, after the age of 50, and those who have not been infected with the influenza virus can develop a more severe clinical form of this disease.

"Rarely have we had this much flu in April, but it will quickly 'capitulate' to warmer weather, because it is much less resistant than coronavirus. What is happening this season confirms the old epidemiological theory that when a virus spreads and occupies space, as was the case with coronavirus, then the flu virus has no chance of surviving, and it only 'raised its head' when coronavirus began to subside," explains Dr. Petrovic.

The testing of samples at the Torlak Institute confirmed flu infections in the territory of 13 districts. On the epidemiological scale, this is a low regional distribution, as well as the level of virus activity. Although it has been "flaring up" since mid-March, it is still of low intensity.

(Telegraf.rs)