The increase in cases in Brazil of the H3N2 influenza Influenza virus strain throughout the month of December, added to the advance of the Ômicron variant, which already has at least 40 cases registered in the country, raise concerns about the agglomerations that may occur because of this Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
The infectious disease specialist and professor at Unicamp, Raquel Stucchi, commented that, until November 24, year-end meetings between vaccinated people would be “practically free”.
“On November 24, Ômicron arrived. Soon after, the flu cases started to worry everyone”, he recalls.
The specialist emphasizes that, in the current situation, meetings can even happen, but with some conditions.
“We still can’t gather 50 people that we haven’t found for two years”, he points out. The teacher explains that parties must gather 10 to 15 people at most.
She also asks for a control similar to the vaccination passport to be carried out at family meetings, so that everyone present is vaccinated.
In addition, Raquel comments that the parties need to take place in open and ventilated environments.
“Be very careful with people who respond worse to the vaccine: children, the elderly, immunosuppressed, who can have more serious conditions,” he said.
She points out that “extremes of age” and people with comorbidities account for the majority of hospitalizations for flu and Covid-19.
The teacher also says that self-monitoring is important. “If you get up in the morning with a sore throat, a stuffy nose or a fever, stay home. They will not expose themselves at meetings of people”, he pointed out.
She reinforces that the diagnostic differentiation between flu and Covid-19 can only be guaranteed with testing – in this case, the Covid-19 test, which is more available in the municipalities.
“It is mandatory to take a Covid-19 test for everyone who has flu-like symptoms, because there is no other way. Hit the hammer [se é gripe ou Covid] only with the exam”, he concluded.
Reference: CNN Brasil
