Scientists strongly recommend that all self-protection measures and especially the use of a mask be observed in connection with the outbreak of both diseases. fluas well as his coronavirusbut also others viruses lately.

The data shows that the explosive cocktail of flu, coronavirus and respiratory viruses that experts have been sounding the alarm about for months is reaching its peak, with an estimated 100,000 flu cases a day in January and up to 300,000 cases in February.

Flu Doctor Visits Peak

From December 26 to January 1, visits to the doctor for influenza reached the highest level since 2018, according to the latest EODY report.

It is significant that it was during this period that laboratory observers took 54 samples, of which 26, i.e. 48%, were positive for influenza.

In addition, community flu positivity showed a further increase in the reference week, while overall, from week 40, 2022 to week 52, 2022, 27 people with influenza were admitted to the intensive care unit, and 6 patients with laboratory-confirmed influenza were hospitalized. recorded.

It is estimated that up to 100,000 cases of influenza are registered daily in February.

“Probably in January we will reach 80,000, 90,000 and 100,000 cases. These are frightening figures, since among these thousands of cases there will be 1,000, 1,500 patients who will need to be hospitalized. Therefore, we must prepare, and those who have not received the vaccine must do so, so that individually we can survive the disease more easily, and together we can cope with the expected tsunami of influenza, “said exactly two weeks ago at ERT a professor at the Medical School of Pulmonology of Crete University, Nikos Tsanakis.

Despite estimates of a further increase in cases, the latest shifts in pediatric hospitals appear to be calmer than those that prevailed in the previous two weeks.

However, pediatric outpatient clinics remain overwhelmed mainly with cases of RSV, which in adults usually causes mild symptoms of the virus, but in children can lead to bronchiolitis and pneumonia and, less commonly, respiratory failure.

“Triple Epidemic” – Viruses are on the rise too

As EKPA Professor Emeritus of Paediatrics and Endocrinology, Director of the Institute for Maternal and Child Research and Medical Accuracy and Head of the UNESCO Chair in Adolescent Health and Medicine Giorgos Chrousos, told K last Thursday, this year we experienced the famous triple epidemic with COVID-19, which seems less aggressive than influenza and respiratory syncytial virus RSV, which mostly affects infants. RSV is the most common respiratory virus in premature babies, newborns and infants, and children under two years of age. As a rule, all children under 2 years of age have acquired immunity to the virus, which, however, did not happen at the height of the pandemic due to restrictive measures and the use of masks. In children, this can cause serious complications and lead to respiratory failure due to narrowing of the airways. “Slight swelling or inflammation of the airways can cause respiratory failure. However, very few children end up in the intensive care unit where they can be effectively treated. In most cases of severe infection, they are hospitalized in simple beds. Now children’s hospitals are overflowing with children with RSV,” the professor notes.

For his part, the pediatric pulmonologist and member of the Union of Independent Professional Pediatricians of Thessaloniki, municipality of Hydaris, notes that the adenovirus is also on the rise, as is the gastroenteritis virus. Mr Gidaris told ERT that children are not sick from the cold, but from indoors with poor ventilation, and he advised older people to avoid crowded places and wear a mask.

“The outbreak of viruses is associated with protection during the quarantine period, which reduced the immune memory of the body, however, as he emphasized, this does not mean that the measures taken were useless, because you always win something, you lose something,” he said characteristically.

Corona virus – increase in imports, estimates and increase in cases

At the same time, Mr. Demosthenes Sarigiannis, professor of environmental engineering at AUTH, predicted an increase in the number of cases of coronavirus in the country, stating that we expect up to 16,000 cases per day from mid-February, noting, however, that the immunity he has acquired is important now for most of the population. “Immunity either from a previous illness or mostly from vaccination worked very well,” he explained.

“The time that will be of most interest to us in terms of infection numbers will be from mid-February,” said Mr. Sarigiannis and added, speaking with ERT: “In Greece, usually from mid-March, the weather changes, it gets very hot . We go out a lot, so the conditions for coronavirus and all infections are more threatening. We will have an increase in the incidence of coronavirus, approximately twice, but not exorbitant, like two years ago.”

However, according to data published by EODY for the week of December 26 to January 1, imports to our country are increasing due to the coronavirus.

Also sub-variant BA.5 is still the most frequent sub-variant of Omicron, while the percentage of the two sub-variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 shows an increase in relation to the remaining sub-variants strain BA.5. Last week, these two subvariants were found in 41.6% of the samples, and last week their number reached 51.8%.

Among the BA.2 strains, the most commonly recognized subvariant is BA.2.75.

“Kraken” is spreading in Europe and the USA

But three years after the emergence of the novel coronavirus, a new variant, XBB.1.5, is rapidly becoming the dominant strain in parts of the United States due to a powerful combination of mutations that promote widespread spread, including among those previously infected or vaccinated.

XBB.1.5, designated by the World Health Organization as the “most contagious” Omicron variant strain, rose from 2% of cases in the US in early December to more than 27% in the first week of January, according to new estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

When the Omicron variant “triggered” the outbreak last winter, there were many sub-variants that were not prevented by vaccines. So, the strain XBB.1.5 was created from two sub-variants of Omicron.

“XBB didn’t evolve because humans were vaccinated,” von Cooper, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Pittsburgh, told the Washington Post. “This happened because people were infected with many viruses at the same time.”

Virologists who have studied XBB.1.5 say this particular strain can more easily become dominant in a community than its “relatives,” but because of this, the case does not show more severe symptoms.

At the same time, several studies have tried to find out whether SARS-CoV-2 variants spread faster in places with higher vaccination rates, but did not find enough evidence to support this.

“XBB.1.5 is just the latest variation on what we call “continuous virus evolution,” the doctor said. Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, stressed that there are many opportunities for a virus to mutate.

For its part, the World Health Organization is monitoring XBB.1.5 as it wants to see how quickly the new strain can replace the other sub-variants.

WHO: We expect new waves of infection

“The longer this virus circulates, the more opportunities it will have to change,” WHO COVID-19 chief Maria Van Kerkova said at a press conference on Wednesday. “We expect new waves of infection around the world, but this should not lead to additional deaths,” he added.

Experts in the US estimate that hospitals may face an increase in admissions, but they hope there will be no admissions in intensive care units.

“While the new wave continues to evolve, it won’t be as wild as the Delta wave or the early Omicron BA.1 wave,” said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College. Medicine. “Strong herd immunity helps communities resist new options,” he concluded.