Influenza cases increased ahead of schedule: when does vaccination start

Throughout Argentina, there has been an increase in the number of cases of influenza, mainly influenza A H3N2 throughout the country, according to the Ministry of Health of the Nation. This increase began incipient in December and consolidated in January and February.

Generally, cases of seasonal flu rise between April and October each year in Argentina. Not in January, February or March. The Minister of Health of the province of Buenos Aires, Nicolás Kreplak explained that “since 2020 we had few cases of flu, almost none, and now we are seeing an increase that is not yet comparable to an epidemic, but it is happening two months earlier than usual.”

“This also happened in Brazil, a month and a little ago, we are observing some hospitalizations and some cases that one might think is COVID-19, but you analyze, and it's not COVID. It is a type of influenza, influenza A H3N2, which is included in the vaccine that is to come, which arrives in a couple of weeks and is for the population at risk,” the official said this morning in statements to Urbana Play radio.

The national influenza vaccination campaign will begin in the coming weeks, as Kreplak anticipated: “We hope that in the first days of April we will be able to start influenza vaccination.” This free dose of the national campaign is aimed at the population at risk: over 60, under two years of age, health workers and for people with risky or chronic diseases, such as diabetes, kidney problems, cancer treatments.

As for the reasons for the rise in cases outside the usual months of transmission of the influenza virus, what is known as the flu season, Kreplak awarded it to the lowest circulation during the two years of the COVID pandemic and that, after the “relaxation of health care”, the circulation of respiratory viruses much milder than coronavirus. According to the Buenos Aires official, this is something that happened and continues to happen in several countries around the world.

“An epidemiological alert came out from the Ministry of Health of the Nation, we are seeing a high number of influenza A, H3N2, a type of flu that every year, in autumn, begins to circulate. This year it was brought forward, now what is observed that phenomenon of circulation of the influenza virus. The good news is that the strain that is circulating is included in the vaccine formula that we are going to apply shortly,” said Florencia Cahn, infectiologist and president of the Argentine Society of Vaccinology and Epidemiology (SAVE).

Since 2020, after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, cases of seasonal flu had a much lower record than in previous years. “Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Argentina, influenza virus activity has remained low,” said the epidemiological alert of the national health portfolio issued on February 19. However, since the end of the year, cases of influenza began to grow much earlier than usual, in epidemiological week 49 of 2021.

CABA also saw an increase in influenza cases in recent weeks and confirmed that flu vaccination will begin next month: “The patent has changed and viral behavior has changed.”

“We have detected in February and March a percentage of people with respiratory symptoms and high fever who are more linked to the influenza virus, which is the influenza virus,” said last Thursday in his regular press conference, the Minister of Health of the City of Buenos Aires, Fernán Quirós, and anticipated that in the next few days will give details of the flu vaccination campaign in the City. “We imagine that throughout this year everything will return to its usual pace to what we were used to, but in fact we have detected a certain number of major cases for the time of year of the year of influenza,” he added.

If we consider the cases of influenza that were reported during this summer according to the ages of those affected, the highest number of cases were detected in children under 5 years of age in the first place and in young people between 25 and 34 years old in second place. The flu did not impact the same throughout the country. The jurisdictions in which the highest number of positive samples were recorded are the province of Buenos Aires, Salta, Santa Fe, Tucumán and the City of Buenos Aires.

Outside the National Vaccination Calendar, which provides for free doses against influenza for the population at risk, several prepaid medicine companies will start applying doses in the coming days. Although most companies are waiting for the provision of the updated vaccines they estimate will arrive by the end of March.

Ricardo Lilloy, president of the Chamber of Private Medicine Entities (Cempra) explained to Infobae that the influenza vaccine “is always new, it is updated with the viruses that existed in the last winter season in Europe, so the new vaccine has not yet been released, there are 4 or 5 brands, which are usually distributed in late March or early April.”

Regarding what the costs will be, Lilloy explained that “in general, the coverage of the flu vaccine is similar to drugs, with a percentage discount according to each prepaid. In the case of patients at risk, such as over 60 years of age or immunocompromised, coverage can reach 100% and thus be free for members.”

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