“The flu syndrome can be a very dangerous disease for the chronically ill, immunosuppressed, over 65 and pregnant women. However, the most exposed categories are also at risk: school staff, law enforcement and workers in the agricultural and veterinary sectors. Therefore, very important is the flu shot but let’s be clear the flu vaccines are different and specific for categories of people, it is therefore necessary to ask your family doctor for advice ”. He says this to Adnkronos Salute Elisabetta Alti, general practitioner, who has no doubts about the impact of the flu in Italy and in the world: “Compared to last year – Alti claims – we have more cases of flu syndrome not only in Italy but also in the world. This is partly due to the relaxation of social restrictions (use of the mask, the non-persistence in closed places together with many people), consequently the spread of the flu virus is more marked ”(VIDEO).
Seasonal flu, warns the general practitioner, “can be very dangerous in two respects: first of all because cause of exacerbations in chronically ill patients“. For example, a patient suffering from “heart failure if he contracts the flu virus in a significant way can have a worsening of the underlying disease. This also leads to a reduction in daily functions, including loss of autonomy and an increase in the symptoms of chronic disease. All chronically ill patients, i.e. diabetics, people with BPCO or diagnosed with heart failure, patients with cancer in progress or undergoing chemotherapy, a treatment that lowers the immune system, are certainly at risk. As well as pregnant women for whom the flu syndrome can have consequences on the fetus in the first months “.
Whenever we are struck by “a flu syndrome – underlines Alti – we have a lowering of the defense capacity of our immune system leading to an opening to a bacterial super infection. It is no coincidence that all those immunosuppressed patients for congenital diseases are also at risk, people whose spleen has been removed who for this reason have a low resistance to bacterial infections. The influence of the elderly (over 65) and the elderly (over 80) should also not be underestimated because they have a natural lowering of the immune defenses (immunosenescence). Their immune systems are in fact less able to react to the flu and to respond to the vaccine. For these reasons, in addition to avoiding the flu, they must undergo vaccination with specific vaccines “.
Regarding the prevention and treatment of seasonal flu, “the role of the general practitioner is fundamental – Alti admits -. The family doctor reaches out to all people. We all have a general practitioner to whom we can contact first of all to find out if we are or are not a category at risk, what is the benefit-effect ratio of a vaccination and if vaccination is recommended for us. Our task is to advise the individual person during the year on whether to get vaccinated or not, as well as to carry out the vaccination “. Without having to queue in a hub but “simply by going to your family doctor who advises when to get the flu vaccination and what to do because flu vaccines are different and specific for each category of people” he concludes.
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