Infectious disease doctor Juan Saavedra warned of the projection of the high peak of the sixth wave of coronavirus for the month of January 2023.
Source: https://asuntoscentrales.com
“Looking at the data on daily infections in Santa Cruz and in the country, the sixth wave started on November 9, cases are slowly climbing, it is likely that between mid-January and mid-February we would have the peak of the sixth wave ”, alerted the doctor .
According to Saavedra, the characteristics of this wave will resemble the fifth wave, there will be many cases of mild illnesses, few serious ones and a mortality similar to the fifth wave. In the country, the percentage of people who have two doses of vaccine does not reach 60%, we have low hybrid immunity, which causes Omicron virus in any of its lineages to produce this surge.
To this end, he recommends “resuming the measures learned in these two years: use of the chin strap indoors, hand hygiene and vaccination. Nearly 60% of the population gets two doses, but 40% doesn’t. High-risk groups should receive booster doses,” the doctor stressed.
On the other hand, the doctor reported that 20 cases of whooping cough have been identified in the country, most of the cases are children under 5 years of age, but there are also some cases in adolescents and the elderly, due to the low percentage of vaccination.
“It is a bacterial disease, all cases of whooping cough, whooping cough, choking cough, it is also called, can be treated with antibiotics, it is a disease that is easy to recognize and easy to cure. The problem is due to the vaccination rate that never reaches 100% of the population, there have been families who have not received the full dose or have not received the vaccine,” informed Dr. Saavedra.
The doctor has recommended not to interrupt the vaccination scheme in minors, the triple bacterial vaccine that prevents diphtheria, coqueluche and tetanus is a vaccine that is administered to all children starting from two months of age; in the fourth month, the second dose; at the sixth month, at the third and at two years the first booster and at four the second booster. “The vaccination must be resumed, each mother checks her child’s card, if she sees that she does not have the 5 doses she must apply”.
In addition, the scheme for the prevention of pertussis is not only through the vaccination of the baby, the pregnant woman in the second and third trimesters must receive the vaccine against tetanus and pertussis, with the aim that at the birth of the baby, in the first two months of life are protected against coqueluche, “it is pending to vaccinate all pregnant women, coueluche tetanus, flu and Covid, in this way the baby will be protected during the first months of life,” warned the doctor.
While influenza is a year-round disease, “cases spike in the early fall and winter months. The recommendation is that everyone should have already received their flu vaccine by March.”
Dr Saavedra reported that “according to the WHO communication, the world is seeing outbreaks in animals, bird flu in chickens, ducks, cases of bird flu in farms in Latin American countries. To avoid the arrival of this variable, training will be carried out, there are no cases in humans, but if there are many sick animals, this is a preamble to its transmission to people and from there an outbreak occurs and a next epidemic ” , said Dr. Saavedra.
