Everyone is sick and the hospitals are full. This is partly because a harmless flu often turns into pneumonia. A Belgian doctor he explains to HLN how can it be.
“Due to the mask obligation, we have protected ourselves against viruses and bacteria for a long time,” begins Dr. Pascal Van Bleyenbergh. “Perhaps our system is less strong as a result, but this is actually speculation. However, the fact that sometimes a flu is accompanied by a further bacterial infection is nothing new. Here’s the thing: you have a general defense system – the immune system – but you also have a local defense system. In principle, your local immune system will stop a bacterium from getting into your bronchial tubes, but when you have a viral infection, that system doesn’t work either Your airways are inflamed, there’s a lot more mucus and such and that makes it easier to bacteria going in. And we really see that a lot more often now.
All beds full
It is not known how many more hospital admissions this will entail. “I don’t have statistics on that, but I can count on a 30 percent increase,” says Van Bleyenbergh. “We often hear that it started with ‘the flu’, a viral infection, and ended with bacterial pneumonia. Because of the band it can be said that 10 percent of people with pneumonia have to go to the hospital. Now we see that our ward is full, all the beds for lung diseases have been taken and we have also taken beds in other wards. 40 percent of all lung diseases are infections.”
Even young people are increasingly victims of the double infection. “We have a girl here who is just 17 with pneumonia and we’ve had people in their twenties and thirties in the last few weeks as well.”
