The season of colds has arrived in Bavaria. This is also evident in doctors’ practices: In the past few weeks, many patients have come to Dr. with coughs, colds or fever. Josef Pömsl. The internist works with his colleagues in a large family practice in Kaufering. Pömsl evaluated the data from the practice software, with the result: In the past two weeks, almost twice as many patients with respiratory infections arrived as in previous years, including those before the corona pandemic.
The increasing number of acute respiratory diseases is also confirmed by the weekly ARE reports (ARE: acute respiratory diseases) from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI): Around 7.1 million people in Germany were ill with it at the beginning of December. However, Christian Bogdan, Professor of Infection Immunology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, gives the all-clear: The increase corresponds to what is usually expected at this time of year and at these temperatures. People would spend a lot more time indoors and would therefore be able to exchange respiratory viruses very easily.
The flu season hasn’t started yet
Fortunately, the influenza virus, the causative agent of the real flu, has so far hardly been involved in this virus exchange. Influenza viruses have so far only rarely appeared in the samples that the Robert Koch Institute uses for its ARE weekly reports.
Most people are currently plagued by other pathogens. Many of them trigger a so-called flu-like infection. In contrast to the real flu (influenza), these are mostly harmless. Rhinoviruses are the cause of many colds. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is often detected in the samples. RSV infections are particularly common in children. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the RSV wave began in mid-November. The number of RSV infections is increasing every week, but, as infectious immunologist Christian Bogdan puts it, in small children it is still within an expected range.
Many illnesses due to Corona
The coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 is currently also behind many respiratory diseases. According to family doctor Josef Pömsl, the infections are relatively harmless in the majority of cases.
The number of Covid-19 cases may continue to rise in the coming weeks. The wastewater measurements in Bavaria clearly point in this direction. The current variants, including the Omicron sub-variants Eris (EG.5) and Pirola (BA.2.86), are no more dangerous than previously circulating variants. The reason is a good basic immunity of many people and adapted vaccines that protect well against a serious course of the disease, even with the current variants, says Christian Bogdan, who is also a member of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko).
What is crucial is whether there is evidence that the number of severe cases of the disease is increasing. The same applies to the number of patients who have to be hospitalized because of SARS-CoV-2, possibly even with treatment in the intensive care unit. The situation here is very stable at the moment.
Advice on vaccination against corona, flu and pneumococcus
However, if you belong to one of the risk groups and have not yet received a vaccination, now is a good time, advises Bogdan. Both against the coronavirus and against flu and pneumococci. This group of bacteria cause pneumonia. Anyone who is over sixty years old, has previous illnesses or has a poor immune system should protect themselves with a vaccination now at the latest, because winter has only just begun.
2023-12-08 17:28:36
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