The wave of respiratory infections – influenza, viruses and SARS-CoV2 infections – makes family doctors’ offices and the emergency rooms of infectious disease hospitals cramped these days. At the Matei Balș Institute in the capital, the number 1 hospital for infectious diseases in the country, the daily average has reached 250 people who show up in the guard room, while at the height of the pandemic it was 300, says Dr. Adrian Marinescu, head of infectious diseases and medical director of the hospital, for HotNews.ro.
The queue at the doctorPhoto: AGERPRES
- Are there any vacancies in hospitals? How can we protect ourselves from the wave of respiratory infections affecting both children and adults, and why is it so aggressive?
- We are trying to find answers with Doctor Adrian Marinescuhead of infectious diseases and medical director of the Matei Balș Institute for Infectious Diseases, e dr. Gindrovel Dumitraone of the best-known family doctors in the country and coordinator of the vaccination group of the National Society of Family Medicine.
Adrian Marinescu: “We are getting close to making the pandemic manageable. Serious cases, of ATI, represent a small percentage”
About 250 patients arrive in the emergency room of the Matei Balș Institute every day – close to the numbers at the peak of the pandemic: “Certainly the manageability has increased in recent weeks. We have reached the point where we have about 250 presentations every day, most of which are respiratory infections, including influenza, other viruses, SARS-CoV2 infection, regardless of age,” said Dr. Adrian Marinescu for HotNews.ro.
Fortunately, the percentage of severe cases, requiring hospitalization or ending up in intensive care, is low, explains Dr. Adrian Marinescu: “To give you an idea, at the height of the pandemic, we reach about 300 presentations a day, so we are somehow approaching that figure. It is true that most, fortunately, are mild forms, so much so that around between 10 and 15% are patients who must remain hospitalized, for which we have to make places, and severe cases, of Intensive Care, that means a small percentage, fortunately.Always for comparison, we must say that on normal days, before the season cold, we have about 150 presentations”.
Dr Adrian Marinescu, head of infectious diseases, medical director of the Matei Balș Institute
The watch rooms, filled with adults and children
Patients who arrive in the emergency room are both adults and children, says Adrian Marinescu: “We get infected regardless of age.”
The doctor admits that the little ones interact more, especially in groups. Additionally, young children with respiratory symptoms need to be monitored, which is why they end up in the emergency room more often.
Not only children require attention in such a situation, but also elderly people with chronic conditions, Adrian Marinescu points out.
Are there any places left in hospitals?
I asked Adrian Marinescu if, given the conditions in which hundreds of patients present to the emergency room every day, there are still vacancies in the hospital, even if the percentage of those requiring hospitalization is small.
“As far as places are concerned, the situation is as follows, and I think it is an answer that should apply to any hospital: of course, all places are occupied during a day, but in the following days discharges are made dynamically. We are releasing these places and surely it will fill up that day, yes, so there are no places available overnight, but we are trying to manage the situation in such a way that things are balanced.On the other hand, it is obvious that we cannot, with two hospitals (for infectious diseases – Matei Balș Institute and Victor Babeș Hospital – ed) solve the situation of respiratory infections in Bucharest and the metropolitan area As discussed, and there is clear information from the Ministry of Health, all hospitals must provide places for COVID, all hospitals, or at least the big ones, need to have respiratory infection assessment centers, so that things are spread out relatively uniformly, in order to avoid waiting times which, unfortunately, can be long in the guard room”, explains the medical director of the Matei Balș Institute.
Influence / Photo: Tero Vesaleinen – Dreamstime.com
Influenza A cases have increased. How dangerous is the virus?
As the number of people diagnosed with influenza A is starting to increase in recent days, I asked Adrian Marinescu how dangerous this virus is: “Influenza, of course, can cause problems, and especially for those who are vulnerable, it can be very much in danger. We know very well that you can die of the flu,” says the doctor.
Remember that the flu shot is the best preventative measure against the flu: “It’s never too late, and respiratory infection season still has a long way to go.”
How do we protect ourselves? Is going back to the mask a solution? / Gindrovel Dumitra: “From my point of view, this is the solution”
Besides vaccination, which is a solution for influenza and SARS-CoV2 infection, what else can we do to protect ourselves?
“We are mainly discussing caution, not necessarily panic,” says Adrian Marinescu.
We asked doctors Adrian Marinescu and Gindrovel Dumitra how we can protect ourselves in the face of the wave of respiratory infections, at the end of almost 3 years of the pandemic, when many people no longer want to hear about wearing a mask or other protective measures.
Dr Gindrovel Dumitra, family doctor, coordinator of the Vaccinology Group within the National Society of Family Medicine
“Know that from my point of view this is the solution (wearing a mask – ed)”, says Dr. Gindrovel Dumitra, whose family medicine practice is currently under attack from patients with respiratory infections: “Guys , put on your mask! I did it again today, at the office”, is the doctor’s advice.
Additionally, people who have respiratory symptoms should avoid attending events, including gatherings or family vacation meals, during this time, the two doctors note.
“We have to break the chain of transmission a bit, and this usually happens in the week between Christmas and New Year’s, and then until St. John’s Day. Because the data we have in previous years shows us a very strong decrease in the number of cases in this period, precisely because the groups of children, those of the school, are on vacation”.
If you have respiratory symptoms, the first advice is to contact your family doctor and isolate yourself, in order not to risk spreading the respiratory infection to others.
“If I have acute symptoms, I isolate myself, whether it’s a child or an adult,” says Dr. Adrian Marinescu.
Why do we have such an aggressive wave of respiratory infections?
The fact that the circulation of viruses has been reduced in the last 3 years, and this season we interact more with them and it is clear that we are getting infected to a greater extent is one of the main explanations for this very aggressive season of respiratory infections, he explains Adrian Marinescu: “The immune system is probably less balanced after these 3 years of pandemic, and therefore we expect a slightly higher percentage of complications. After all, it is normal in cold season conditions and with a large number of respiratory infections”.
Not only among children, but also among adults there is a large number of people who simply do not have protection against some common viruses, explains the doctor Gindrovel Dumitra: “When the sources, i.e. the children in the communities, are multiple, the risk of people who are immunologically naive to a certain virus – we don’t call them naive, we call them susceptible to developing disease – encountering these viruses is much higher than before.The more viruses you have in your population, the more you will catch the susceptible population that will develop disease.If had a normal season, let’s say, we would have had 10 such cases.Good, because the current season is not regular, and because there is a large number of people that you can get sick from, so that they develop the disease, those 10 people they become 50 or 100, and then they become visible to the system. And so you hear more people developing the disease. These are numbers: a large number of people get sick in a short period of time, putting I put the health system under pressure. It’s the same mechanism as the pandemic, but on a much smaller scale.”
Treatment of virosis / Photo: Katarzyna Bialasiewicz – Dreamstime.com
Is this season of respiratory infections out of the ordinary or is it normal? And how long will it last?
Even if the current season of respiratory infections is aggressive, it is not something extraordinary, Gindrovel Dumitra assures: “We are not in an area, shall we say, of a public health emergency. We are not in a position to declare an epidemic or a pandemic, but we come after two seasons of getting used to these viruses. However, the numbers show us that we are somewhere above the values we encountered in the pre-pandemic years. So it is clear that there is much more risk sickness, but it’s not special.”
Dr Gindrovel Dumitra also says that ‘we have had attention since autumn that we expect this season to be a bit tougher. And we still don’t have the flu epidemic, which is very likely to happen early in January”.
Will we get rid of this wave of respiratory infections soon or will it last longer? “The months of January and February will be complicated. From March, things will rebalance, but we will still have the flu. We also had it in April, in the years before the pandemic. Therefore, the part relating to prudence and prevention are the two elements that we should take into consideration”, is the message of Dr. Adrian Marinescu.
