Health and wellness
Covid and Australian flu, the peak around Christmas: the differences
According to experts, the two conditions must be distinct, even if in fact the symptoms overlap. The holidays of the next few days are indicated as the phase of maximum diffusion of the infections. According to Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist and professor at the State University of Milan, the flu peak will be ‘in the Christmas period, when it will reach 150,000 daily cases, for a seasonal total of 10 million cases on New Year’s Eve’
Covid hospitalizations are increasing both in departments both in terapie intensivewith cases underestimated by 50%, and attention is growing for the flu – known as the Australian flu – whose peak should be in the holidays of Natale. And meanwhile, experts are warning not to confuse the two diseases, confusing the symptoms and treating them inadequately from a pharmacological point of view. With the risk that the upcoming Christmas holidays will see not only a peak in flu cases, but also, as feared in the US, a new wave of Covid
Explains the virologist Francis Broccoliof the University of Milan Bicocca: “The two conditions must be distinguished but we are instead seeing a single treatment aimed at reducing fever and often at thecompletely inappropriate use of antibioticsincorrect for both Covid and the flu”
“Do the Differential diagnosis is very difficult because the symptoms of Covid and flu are similar but you don’t even run the test. Instead, it would be enough to undergo a rapid antigenic swab to diversify the cases and the related treatments”. It should be considered, the virologist said, that they are advancing new variantssuch as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, and at the moment it is likely to have more cases of Covid-19 than the flu”, continues the expert