Covid or flu?

by Francesco Cappello

Did you know that swabs do not distinguish between different influenza viruses and that according to the WHO, influenza in the world has practically disappeared?

An ISS report on seasonal flu 2017/18 reads:

Mortality : During the seventeenth week of 2018, mortality was lower than expected, with a daily average of 184 deaths compared to the expected 199

More generally, in a study "Investigating the impact of influenza on excess mortality in all ages in Italy during recent seasons (2013 / 14–2016 / 17 seasons)" , published by the International Journal of Infectious desease, we read how in winter 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16 and 2016/17 an estimated average of 5,290,000 cases of flu-like syndromes [ILI] occurred in Italy, corresponding to an incidence of 9% which resulted in 7,027 respectively , 20,259, 15,801 and 24,981 deaths
In the period considered by the study, more than 68,000 deaths attributable to flu epidemics were therefore estimated.

According to the authors of the study, the observed excess of deaths is explained by the high average age found in Italy and the consequent large number of fragile subjects.

We are not surprised, in fact, we know that the normal seasonal influences caused by influenza viruses have always caused mortality from respiratory complications such as severe acute respiratory infections (SARI), acute respiratory distress syndromes (ARDS), which have always help to increase the number of people admitted to intensive care.

On the other hand, it is surprising what has been highlighted by the recent data (October 26) provided by the WHO which shows that the cases of influenza in the world have suddenly dropped by 98%! See also Covid killed the flu . Experts: «The cases in the world have collapsed by 98%» and here Has Covid killed off the flu?

If we add that the swabs do not specifically detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 but more generally the coronaviruses or its traces or the common influenza viruses (see my Doubts to dab ), the doubts and perplexities deepen, letting that the shadows irreparably prevail over the clarity.

Overcrowding
Overcrowding in intensive care and resuscitation wards is a long-standing problem in our healthcare facilities. The difference with the past lies only in the different media relevance that it has assumed with the covid.

Here is a review article of 2018 on the subject "The overcrowding of the emergency rooms in winter and the increase in beds in pneumology" by Mario Del Donno, Antonio Di Sorbo and Assunta Miccoil. The following is the summary of the article which summarizes the main points

The increase in the incidence and prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases worldwide determines a significant social weight both at the health care and economic level and represents, for health professionals and policy makers, an important challenge to be faced in the planning of national and global health policies. To this end, preventive health and social policies should be implemented to encourage smoking cessation, to reduce atmospheric pollution and to carry out more widespread vaccinations, especially in patients at high risk of infectious exacerbations. Furthermore, a more correct and adequate programming of pneumology beds in hospitals becomes essential, even with the activation of Semi-Intensive Respiratory Therapy Units, capable of giving the right therapeutic answers to patients suffering from acute respiratory diseases and / or severe chronic that crowd the emergency rooms, as well as freeing places of less critical patients from resuscitation.

and some excerpts:
A medical and socio-political awareness of the changes that foresee COPD as the third cause of death and pleuro-pulmonary tumors as the fifth cause of death in the world becomes fundamental.

(…) Also in Italy, the growing prevalence of acute and chronic acute respiratory diseases, in the face of the shortage of beds in General Intensive Care, has produced an increasing interest in the opening of new Intensive and Sub-Intensive Respiratory Therapies, in the departments of Pneumology. In fact, as highlighted by the last national census, UTIRs have increased from 26 to 44 units in the last 10 years, even if the number of beds surveyed is still below the estimated national need and the geographical distribution is heterogeneous, with greater concentration in Northern Italy

Furthermore, it is evident that the problems relating to overcrowding in hospitals also in our Italian reality concern, in addition to the administrative bodies, specifically different professional figures, and in particular:

1. General Practitioners (…);
2. outpatient pulmonologist specialists;
3. hospital Pulmonologists, who should equip themselves to manage beds dedicated to patients with acute and / or chronic respiratory diseases, even severe ones, in equipped Intensive Care or Semi-Intensive Respiratory Care units 26 27, and not "suffer" the closure or downsizing of departments of Pneumology, as often happens.

In Italy the difficulties linked to the overcrowding of the PS are present in the periods not only in winter and the problems, unsolved, occur with absolute punctuality every year .

https://www.francescocappello.com

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Covid article or influence? comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/covid-o-influenza/ on Tue, 03 Nov 2020 14:17:49 +0000.