Vaccination campaigns against the coronavirus and the flu are continuing. The two diseases can combine, with a dangerous impact on health.
The coronavirus epidemic is not over, and we must also count on the return of a well-known seasonal disease: the flu. This widespread influenza virus is not to be trivialized, however. For the 2019-2020 season, Public Health France figures show nearly 60,000 emergency visits for fluincluding 6,000 hospitalizations (10%) during the epidemic, 860 serious cases admitted to intensive care reported and 3,700 deaths attributable to influenza during the epidemic. Some doctors are alarmed at the possibility of co-contracting the two viruses. This co-infection would even double the risk of death, according to Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency.
In the case of co-infection, the two viruses progress simultaneously in the body. The probability of this situation would however remain relatively low indicates the British Huffington Post, relaying the study resultstarget = “_ blank”> from 2020.
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The parallel development of influenza and Covid-19
The most alarming risk, according to the figures, is not so much that of contracting the two diseases at the same time, as that of seeing the two epidemics progress in parallel. Doctors therefore call on not to weaken in respect of barrier gestures, which make it possible to contain the coronavirus but also other seasonal viruses.
Especially since the fact of being vaccinated against the coronavirus does not protect against the possibility of being infected. However, the vaccine helps prevent contracting a severe form. The flu vaccination campaign begins on Friday, October 22, 2021 for priority audiences (people aged 65 and over; people under 65 with certain chronic diseases; pregnant women; and people with an body mass (BMI) greater than or equal to 40.