StemCell Therapy

Pop quiz time. Youve got a cough, fever, chills and a runny nose: Is it COVID-19 or influenza?

The only symptoms that are unique to COVID and not unique to the flu is the loss of taste and the loss of smell, Otherwise youll have the same symptoms, said Jenny Lantis, infection prevention coordinator with Great Plains Health.

However, there is something that can help you and your health care provider figure out what youve got without waiting on test results: Whether or not youve gotten the influenza vaccine.

If you get vaccinated that will definitely help, because once you become sick with the symptoms, it may be easier to diagnose you, because we can say, You had the flu vaccine, so quite possibly what you have is COVID rather than flu, Lantis said. Thats probably the biggest, most important thing this year you can do is to get the (flu) vaccination.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that there were as many as 56 million cases of influenza during the 2019-20 flu season. While this season isnt expected to be as severe, the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic raises concerns of a twindemic that could strain the health care system.

We are concerned with influenza and COVID overlapping, and one of those reasons being is that we dont want to overwhelm our health care facilities, Lantis said. Currently with a mild flu season, that does tax the hospital already, so with the overlapping of the two infectious diseases, that could overwhelm the health care facility.

The best way to help prevent overburdening the system? Get your flu shot, Lantis repeated.

Influenza vaccination is probably more important this year than ever because of the threat of the twindemic and that we could be facing the two emergencies at the same time, Lantis said. Getting vaccinated because influenza is already a deadly disease we want to make sure everyone is protected. Another good reason for getting vaccinated is because having the flu and COVID-19 on top of it could be deadly.

Great Plains Health family medicine practitioner Dr. Kali Rubenthaler echoed that sentiment.

As we head into flu season, its going to be complicated, Rubenthaler said. The flu and COVID-19 look very similar as far as respiratory symptoms go. Thats why getting a flu shot this year is more important than ever. While the flu vaccine does not prevent 100% of flu cases, it does lessen the severity and keep people from being hospitalized.

Lantis and infectious disease specialist Dr. Eduardo Freitas are cautiously optimistic that measures in place to prevent COVID-19 spread will help lessen the severity of flu season.

Dr. Freitas and I actually forecast that this flu season wont be as bad if everyone continues to mask and do good sanitizing and social distancing, Lantis said. Were hoping that will help decrease the amount of flu that we see in our community, as long as everybody is doing those preventative measures to help prevent infection.

Despite the measures in place that may help decrease the spread of the flu, Lantis said she and Freitas are concerned that there will be large numbers of people who will forgo the flu vaccination just because of all the concerns with truthfulness and accuracy of information, which leads to concerns of a widespread outbreak.

Due to the pandemic, the hospital is exploring different options for administering the vaccine to avoid having large numbers of people in one clinic.

Some options were looking at are drive-thru flu clinics, where you can schedule your vaccination in advance, and well have staff outside, kind of like our drive-thru mobile clinics for COVID, Lantis said. Were looking at options where we dont have to bring all these people into clinics just for a vaccine.

GPH has also started administering the flu vaccine to patients, and encourages people to get the vaccine as soon as it is available. According to the CDC, manufacturers have projected that they will provide as many as 198 million doses of flu vaccine, which tops the 175 million dose record set during the previous flu season.

As of Friday, 47.6 million doses of the flu vaccine have been administered.

The vaccine is not perfect, but its still a good vaccine, Lantis said. Its important to get it so you can lessen the severity of your symptoms, which will also help in decreasing hospitalizations, so that were not overwhelmed here with as many flu patients, and we can make sure we can take care of our COVID patients.

Here is the original post:
Vaccination key to preventing twindemic - North Platte Telegraph

This entry was posted on September 13, 2020 at 2:57 am and is filed under Preventative Medicine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |