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IANS: Once known to be just like the common cold, the disease has claimed two lives in Karnataka and Haryana. According to reports, children under the age of 5 are ending up in the intensive care unit. Your comments?
Guleria: H3N2 mostly causes a mild flu-like condition. But in old age – children and the elderly and those with complications – it can cause serious illness and they can be hospitalized. In some cases, they may also require admission to the intensive care unit for severe pneumonia.
For this reason, we have been promoting Covid-appropriate behavior, especially in the high-risk group, and also increased vaccination for prevention in the high-risk group and many in the elderly.
IANS: Why is there a rise in influenza cases? Is the severity greater this time because Covid has weakened our immune system?
Guleria: Influenza is not a new phenomenon, every year there are patients with the disease who are hospitalized due to severe infection in the hospital and intensive care unit. But maybe it will be a little more this year.
The virus regularly passes through what we call antigens; and like the coronavirus, it continues to mutate. So it’s normal for the virus to mutate a bit, leading to a higher chance of infection. That is why there is a vaccine that is taken annually, because every year the virus changes a little or mutates to some extent.
I don’t think there is a link between the increase in H3N2 and Covid. In theory, it’s possible that because the flu has been lower over the last couple of years, what we would see in the population’s inherent natural immunity has been reduced.
Another reason is that Covid has been the dominant respiratory virus for the past two years.
The fact that we followed Covid appropriate behavior also protected us from the flu.
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