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Doctors have been emphasizing for some time that the fight against Covid-19 has worked well in all infectious diseases, but it is important that it does not have any services.
“Globally, people’s behavior has changed due to fear of the coronavirus. Mobility and other restrictions naturally contribute to less spread of colds and flu. But it has not disappeared anywhere, and knowing the processes in the nature, the properties of viruses, there is no doubt that it circulates and exists ”, emphasized S. Čaplinskas.
Flu outbreaks await
The professor pointed out that if you manage to control the coronavirus, but people forget about the flu and vaccines against it, new problems may arise.
“The World Health Organization already predicts that in 2022, perhaps 2023, influenza outbreaks can be expected. If the influenza virus continues to mutate, the spread could be very high,” warned the virologist.
Another thing the professor pointed out was the behavior of the coronavirus itself.
“It has already established itself in the human population and is mutating towards greater or lesser infectivity. And who knows, maybe it could be the case that a coronavirus dominates and it is more than the same flu virus. It can happen that way. All the more so if the current strain of coronavirus spreads 8 times faster than the flu, when it mutates, it spreads even faster than the flu, ”explained S. Čaplinskas.
He recalled that in the absence of such strict restrictions, when people were least concerned about hygiene, between 5 and 10% of people got the flu each year. all populations.
“It just came to our knowledge then. The only difference is that between 10 and 20% of people had the flu. Children do not get this coronavirus every year,” added the virologist.
I cannot provide information
Among other things, the interlocutor recalled that the provision of information about influenza to the public is now generally hampered.
“The problem is that the order of the former Minister of Health, which basically prohibits ULAC from communicating about the flu, has not yet been revoked. Doctors at this institution are generally unable to speak and the NVSC, now assigned these functions, does not have the time, resources, or perhaps the ability to communicate normally.
Therefore, ULAC specialists cannot communicate about influenza and the public is limited to receiving science-based information in a way that is understandable and accessible to them, ”said S. Čaplinskas.
Clever flu genetics?
In turn, the director of the Kaunas Children’s Clinic, prof. Rimantas Kėvalas shared the idea of possible changes in the viral genome during a presentation at a conference on infectious diseases.
As he said, the global pandemic has reduced the number of flu samples, losing the genetics of the virus, which is constantly changing.
“If we completely lose control of the flu virus, which changes every year, there are still many problems ahead,” he said.
When asked if such a scenario is real, Aurelija Žvirblienė, a professor and immunologist at the VU Life Sciences Center, has yet to see such danger.
“There may be some nuances, because depending on which variants of the flu virus are being registered, the next season’s vaccine is even being developed. And that flu virus is much more variable than the coronavirus, its biology.
But on the other hand, I don’t see any particular problem here. If the circulation of the virus stops because people are safe, then perhaps those changes are not so intense, perhaps it is better, ”the researcher did not expand too much.
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