[ad_1]
With hospitals preparing for the annual winter flu season, experts warn the NHS will face severe tension as the coronavirus pandemic continues to rage alongside.
Sir Simon Stevens, CEO of the NHS, warned yesterday that if you catch the flu and coronavirus at the same time, you will die twice as likely.
Do me a favor: SHARE this post.
Seasonal flu adapts to a new strain each year, which means people at risk are encouraged to get a flu shot every year to fight the latest seasonal flu.
There are many similarities between Covid-19 and influenza, and both can be fatal – in the elderly and those with pre-existing medical conditions who are at increased risk for serious complications.
A similarity between seasonal flu and Covid-19 is that they are spread by droplets from the mouth or nose, so face coverings are needed to reduce the spread.
Have you been affected by the pandemic? Send an email to [email protected]when you tell a story
Video not available
Click to play
Tap to play
Play now
However, the transmission rate is different, with the coronavirus being significantly more contagious.
And while we’re still learning about the new virus and how it affects some people more than others, scientists have found some significant differences in the symptoms, transmission and behavior of Covid-19 compared to seasonal flu.
And while the NHS urges people to get a flu shot to ease the burden of hospitals this winter, learning the differences between the disease and Covid will help you know what you may have been taking and what action they should take.
Here are four ways that Covid-19 is different from seasonal flu.
We don’t have a Covid-19 vaccine yet, while the NHS offers a new flu vaccine every year that fights the last seasonal strain.
Scientists say Covid is more common than seasonal flu, and our lack of immunity is a major factor.
Airborne virus expert Professor Linsey Marr who lectures on civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech University warns of the lack of immunity to Covid-19 in populations, which leads to the so-called “supers-spreader” events it leads.
Professor Marr told the Huffington Post that more people in a given room are more likely to contract the coronavirus than the flu. This is not due to the nature of the virus itself, but to the lack of immunity of the population.
As we already know, the race for a Covid-19 vaccine is vital if we are to fight this virus in the here and now and in the years to come, as we do with seasonal flu.
Covid-19 and the flu share several symptoms, including high fever and cough.
They both could see you were experiencing a dry cough and with Covid the cough was persistent.
While people with the flu often have headaches and loss of appetite.
However, early in the pandemic, scientists found that some people can catch and carry Covid-19 without showing symptoms.
And this is another reason why the coronavirus is spreading further and faster than seasonal flu.
If someone has no idea they have the virus – because there are no signs of symptoms – they won’t self-isolate or avoid people, which means they are inadvertently spreading it.
Some scientists have even suggested that around 40-50% of people who contract Covid-19 are asymptomatic.
There are some cases of flu where people have shown no symptoms, but a key difference is that the “incubation period” for Covid-19 is longer.
The professor. Marr explained that the incubation period – the time between exposure to a virus and the appearance or not of symptoms – with Covid is up to 14 days, while people with flu tend to show symptoms within three days.
This means that the window for the flu to spread to others and / or involuntarily is much shorter.
Flu “viral load” – the amount of a virus in the body’s fluid – doesn’t start until symptoms are visible.
With Covid-19, however, this can take up to fourteen days.
The professor. Marr illustrated how someone who has seasonal flu spreads it to 1.3 other people on average.
With the coronavirus, however, this spread of the virus is nearly double – to 2.5 people.
An example of a super-shedding event was the White House rose garden when leading US scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, observed that at least 11 people had discovered the bug.
Donald Trump’s team is known not to wear masks during the pandemic and at the White House event in September we saw Covid-19 spread to more than 10 people in one event.
Dr. Fauci said at the time, “We had a super shedding event at the White House, and it was in a situation where people were massed and wore no masks.”
And Prof. Marr confirms this, underlining how the success of social distancing and the correct use of face coverings are making it difficult for the spread of Covid at the rate of 2.5.
Top Coffins at King’s College, London, UK found that children have different symptoms of Covid than adults, showing that other studies suggest that transmission of the virus is different in children and adults.
And the World Health Organization previously said: “Children are the main drivers of the transmission of the influenza virus in the community.”
He added: “For the Covid-19 virus, initial data show that children are less affected than adults and that clinical attack rates are low in the 0-19 age group.
“Further preliminary data from domestic transmission studies in China suggest that adult children are infected, not the other way around.”
The WHO also reminded that in relation to seasonal flu, children are known to be more at risk of developing serious infections.
Babies under 6 months of age are at greater risk for serious flu complications because their immune systems are less developed and more vulnerable and they are too young to get the flu shot.
Like Covid, pregnant women, the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions are most at risk of the flu.
But at least for children with coronavirus, children appear to be fine, as the main risk is in the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions.
WHO added: “For Covid-19, our current understanding is that age and underlying conditions increase the risk of serious infections.”
Source link
