Carlos Rubio and Begoña Fernández |
Madrid (EFE).- The incidence of influenza has stabilized but is still high, as is that of all respiratory diseases, at the gates of the beginning of the period of allergies due to pollination, a situation that some experts predict could complicate the pictures in child population and vulnerable people.
The report from the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (Sivira) from February 27 to March 5 indicates that the incidence of respiratory diseases as a whole stands at 731 cases, although stabilized and gradually decreasing, mainly due to less activity in the Influenza and synthymic viruses (RSV), mainly responsible this season for the increase in healthcare pressure.
In this context, some experts confirm that the combined cases of allergies and respiratory infections have multiplied among the child population, a situation that could complicate respiratory symptoms in certain population groups, although many variables, such as indicators, will come into play, they say. evolution of the flu or the weather in the coming weeks.
Specifically, the second flu wave recorded this autumn-winter season, mainly due to a rise in type B, which is less invasive, has fallen for the second consecutive week and stands at 243 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants, after reaching a peak of 310 in mid-February.
The forecast is, as explained to Efe by the allergist and member of the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (SEAIC) Isabel Fernández de Alba, that pollination increases in the coming weeks, so she sees it feasible that the sum of a respiratory condition it can “make what is banal serious”, since “an allergic pathology can worsen if it is complicated by an infection” and cause an increase in healthcare pressure.
Fernández de Alba points out that for a decade there has been an increase in allergies with asthma aggravated by recurrent respiratory infections and in the case of children it is where the most serious symptoms have been found.
Regarding the possible confusion of symptoms, this expert considers that it is easy to distinguish since allergies always occur without fever and are accompanied by conjunctivitis, edema in the eyelids, tearing and itchy eyes.
And he adds that if the symptoms last for weeks, it is evident that it is not a cold or a respiratory infection, but rather an allergic process.
More months of respiratory infections due to immune debt
The season for respiratory infections such as the flu or the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes bronchiolitis, may be extended for a few more months due to the immune debt generated by the masks, according to the Spanish Society of Neonatology and the Spanish Society of Pediatric Cardiology. which points to a possible greater affectation in younger or vulnerable older patients.
Both societies have blamed this on the alteration of the cycles and periods that has led to an increase in cases, mainly due to bronchiolitis.
RSV is a virus that can be transmitted from person to person and cause serious lung infections as well as illnesses that may require hospital care in high-risk infants and young children.
The data from Sivira show at this time that the incidence of RSV is very low, 5.5 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants, compared to its peak in November of 159 cases, but in the population segment of those over 64 years the rate rises to 10.4.
While the hospital impact due to influenza is stable at 2.3 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants, compared to 3.2 the previous week, although in those over 79, the most vulnerable, it rises to 9.6 .
Regarding covid-19, the hospitalization rate is at a minimum throughout the pandemic, as is the incidence detected by Primary Care (27), with records lower than the flu of 1 case of admission per hundred thousand inhabitants, although it is higher in citizens over 79 years of age, of 8.6.