Entering autumn, there is another season of high influenza incidence. Influenza superimposed on the new crown, as a major category of respiratory infectious diseases, “difficult brothers”, simultaneous “driving” will bring certain difficulties to the prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases. How to identify? how to respond? Will the new crown become a “large flu”?
In this regard, Gao Xiaodong, deputy director of the Department of Infection Management at Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University, said that as two different respiratory infectious diseases of the same type, the new crown and influenza are indeed very similar in some symptoms, such as cough, runny nose, and fever. “It can be seen from CT that the new crown has some specificities, such as ground glass on the lower edge of the chest, but asymptomatic infections may not show this specificity.” Gao Xiaodong said.
In response to the statement that “the new crown is the’large flu'”, Gao Xiaodong said that this is an optimistic forecast. Although the trend of the new crown is bound to be the “large flu”, it is too early to make a conclusion. Gao Xiaodong explained that the transmission rate of the new crown is still very high, and from a global perspective, the fatality rate is also higher than that of the flu. Therefore, the harm of the new crown is still much stronger than that of the flu. In the future, with the promotion of vaccination and the weakening of mutant strains, the new crown may evolve into “large flu”, but this evolution process will take a certain amount of time.
Finally, Gao Xiaodong emphasized that the prevention of respiratory infectious diseases has a universal law, that is, the “three-piece suit” for epidemic prevention and the “five-requirements” for protection. Specifically, the “three-piece suit” for epidemic prevention includes wearing masks, keeping 1 meter social, and doing personal hygiene; the “five essentials” for protection include continuing to wear masks, keeping social distance, covering coughs and sneezes, and covering hands. Wash frequently and keep windows as open as possible. Citizens who have the conditions should get vaccinated in time and not relax their vigilance in order to deal with the normalized new crown epidemic prevention and control under the superimposed flu.
