MOSCOW, January 1. /TASS/. The current surge of respiratory infections in Russia has been triggered not only by coronavirus but also by the flu with swine flu being particularly severe.
Experts polled by TASS think that after the New Year’s festivities the situation should improve but a second wave could begin in February.
“I think that January and February will be the months where we see a high level of incidence for various acute respiratory viral infections. These include both the flu and coronavirus, not just Sars-Cov-2," senior researcher Anatoly Altshtein of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology told TASS.
About 70% of the detected respiratory viruses are flu viruses. According to Natalya Pshenichnaya, Deputy Director for Clinical and Analytical Work at the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, the current epidemic season differs from the previous ones because with the anti-COVID restrictions lifted, the seasonal respiratory viruses resumed their active circulation and frequently strive “to make up for lost time,” as she told TASS earlier. According to her, Russian residents’ immune memory to flu viruses may have also weakened.
Altshtein told TASS that the flu has a more serious course than COVID. Yet it is not anticipated that the epidemic situation will be more complex than during the previous season. “The situation is quite ordinary, it is just that over the past couple of years we grew unaccustomed to such a flu epidemic, while it happens virtually every year. The coronavirus pandemic was something unusual, unexpected, that terribly affected and continues to affect the world. But as for the flu, the situation is ordinary: we have been living with it for more than 70 years already,” he said. The scientist pointed out that the flu’s mortality rate is lower than that of COVID and it is less likely to cause pneumonia.
The experts note that while currently coronavirus infections are waning in Russia, the circulating respiratory viruses, including the flu, will not be able to edge it out.
The most common flu variant today is А(H1N1/09) or swine flu. It has been detected in as many as 86 regions countrywide. Russia’s top sanitary doctor Anna Popova earlier noted that this flu variant causes the most serious harm to health. According to her, it causes a large number of complications and fatalities are common among people with health issues.
Under the conditions of the increased incidence of flu and respiratory infections, precautions remain the same as with the coronavirus infection: wearing masks in public and clean hands and gadgets. That said, Popova specified that despite the increased rate of incidence, introducing restrictions at the federal level in Russia is currently unnecessary.
According to the experts, vaccination is the most effective preventive measure against the flu and coronavirus. In particular, Russian vaccines have all the necessary components for the formation of immunity, including against the swine flu.
According to Russia’s sanitary watchdog, 75.1 mln people or almost 52% of residents have been vaccinated in the country.