Diseases | Mycoplasma, whooping cough, flu viruses – the debt of the Corona era is now visible in infectious diseases

Now the debt of isolation during the corona period is paid, because after the pandemic, many diseases are more common than usual.

Mycoplasma, whooping cough are currently circulating in Finland, and the number of corona cases has also increased. In addition, there are so-called common flu viruses. This is what the docent, assistant chief medical officer lists Eeva from Sweden From Hus.

“Respiratory tract infections burden the population in the form of sick leave and can lead to hospitalization, especially in risk groups. In the past, epidemics caused by different respiratory pathogens have clearly started only in September, but now already in summer for mycoplasma and whooping cough. Korona has also accelerated since the summer,” Ruotsalainen says.

There are no statistics on the common cold and whooping cough, but an infectious disease doctor at the Department of Health and Welfare Aino Nyqvist points out that the majority of respiratory diseases are specifically flu. He says that the number of mycoplasma cases has been increasing and that there is an epidemic year for whooping cough.

Only a handful of cases of influenza have been reported, and the disease typically only starts raging around the turn of the year.

“During the whole of August, only 31 cases of influenza were found in Finland,” Nyqvist says.

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“We are now in a race with corona vaccinations to ensure that risk groups receive the vaccine before the epidemic accelerates to its peak.”

Corona situation is generally calm, although the increase in the number of cases is visible, says Nyqvist. As autumn progresses and we move towards winter, corona cases will presumably increase.

“For example, in wastewater monitoring, the corona situation has been on a slight rise at the national level since July, and the number of laboratory-confirmed corona cases has also been on a slight rise since July.”

According to Nyqvist, the number of people hospitalized due to corona has slightly increased since July, but the increase seems to have leveled off in August.

The booster round of corona vaccinations has started this year earlier than last year. First, the vaccine is recommended for the most significant risk groups, i.e. elderly people living in nursing homes or receiving regular organized home care, everyone aged 80 and over, and severely immunocompromised people of all ages.

For the age group 75–79 years, vaccination is recommended earlier than in previous autumns.

At the latest, in connection with influenza vaccinations, a booster dose of the corona vaccine is also recommended for adults who have an illness that increases the risk of severe corona disease and for others aged 65 and older.

According to Nyqvist, there are no indications of the current corona variant causing a more serious disease picture.

Huss According to Eeva Ruotsalainen, it can be seen from the wastewater concentrations in all of Finland that already in August, the coronavirus concentrations were clearly ahead of the corresponding time of the previous year.

He estimates that the reason may be the mutation of the virus and the absence of an epidemic peak in the spring: people do not have the protection provided by the infected disease or vaccinations, because it is already less than a year since the last round of vaccinations.

According to the Swede, last year the peak of wastewater concentration, the need for hospitalization and corona deaths was in the second week of November.

“If this epidemic goes like last year, the corona peak would be earlier than last year, for example already in October. The next few weeks will tell how the epidemic progresses.”

“We are now in a race with corona vaccinations to ensure that risk groups receive the vaccine before the epidemic accelerates to its peak and causes an increase in hospitalizations and deaths.”

Last year, the influenza and rs virus followed the corona with a delay of about one and a half months. According to the Swede, the same may happen this year, as it also happened in the Australian corona and influenza epidemic that is just coming to an end.

Before the corona pandemic, the rs virus and influenza epidemics started in December or right after the turn of the year.

Occupational health senior physician Silja KomulainenThe health center says that the increase in upper respiratory tract infections can be seen at receptions. From Terveystalo’s point of view, the disease situation is similar all over Finland.

“Usually at this point in the year, they start to multiply. There is corona, and it seems that its symptoms would be a little stronger than last winter,” Komulainen tells STT.

According to Komulainen, sick leave is also longer due to the more difficult disease picture. He says that the most common symptoms of seeking a doctor are fever, headache, runny nose, cough and sore throat.

“It can be accompanied by stomach symptoms, muscle pains and aches.

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“As far as mycoplasma is concerned, it has been an unusual summer.”

Whooping cough- and mycoplasma epidemics typically occur every 3–5 years and are partly visible this year as an increase in the number of cases.

According to the Swede, the whooping cough epidemic started already in April and will end within a couple of months.

“In terms of the number of cases measured from the infectious disease register, this is the strongest epidemic since 1995, when the register was started. Part of the reason may also be that testing has now been done very persistently and infection tracing has been carried out systematically.”

The pertussis vaccination is given to children, teenagers and 25-year-olds. Conscripts receive it if vaccination protection is not already valid.

“Many 25-year-olds don’t know that they can get a free vaccine from primary health care on the open side,” Ruotsalainen points out.

Whooping cough is dangerous for children under the age of one and especially for newborns, which is why THL recommended in August that pregnant women be given a booster dose of the whooping cough vaccine between 16 and 32 weeks of pregnancy.

“We have had children under one year old in hospital this spring, but luckily almost all of them have had short periods of treatment,” says Ruotsalainen.

His according to him, more mycoplasma cases have also been observed in the Husi area than last year. It usually affects school-age children, especially 10-14-year-olds, but this year in Uusimaa, 15-29-year-olds have also been among the most sick people in the register of infectious diseases.

“As far as mycoplasma is concerned, it has been an unusual summer. It usually occurs in autumn and winter, but now, from the end of May to the middle of August, there have been weekly young adults in the ward due to pneumonia caused by mycoplasma,” says Ruotsalainen.