Laboratory tests can help differentiate cases of covid-19 or the common flu and enable proper treatment and monitoring of patients, according to experts interviewed by Brazil Agency. Both diseases have similar symptoms, especially in the first few days, which makes clinical diagnosis difficult.
Cough, headache, muscle fever, sore throat, runny nose, redness in eyes, watery eyes. All are symptoms that can occur both in cases of flu and covid-19. The treatments, however, are different.
According to clinical pathologist Helio Magarinos, medical director of Richet Medicina e Diagnosis (RJ) and regional president of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Pathology/Laboratory Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, the vast majority of flu cases resolve themselves. Covid-19, on the other hand, needs to be monitored, as patients may experience relapses or very severe cases.
Just in a medical appointment, it is difficult to differentiate the diseases. “It is not very easy to make a clinical diagnosis alone, it needs tests that help a little more to make this distinction”, says Magarinos.
For the infectologist and consultant of the Brazilian Society of Infectology Helio Bacha, it is important to ensure that all patients are tested at least for covid-19. “It’s important that the covid-19 test is available to everyone,” he says. “They [as doenças] they have a different clinical history over time, but the first symptoms are very similar, it is not possible to differentiate: pain in the body, malaise, fever, cold symptoms, rhinitis. In some cases, we have in covid-19 a more serious evolution in the second week”.
In addition to specific tests aimed at identifying covid-19, laboratories now offer a new test, the covid multiplex, which uses the RT-PCR technique to detect, in addition to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, responsible for covid-19 , the Influenza A and Influenza B viruses, which are the two main causes of flu, and the Respiratory Syncytial Virus, also known by its acronym in English, as RSV, which mainly affects children under 2 years of age. The test result is released within 48 hours and is performed on nasopharyngeal scrapes collected through the nostrils.
Cases in Brazil
Brazil is living both with the covid-19 pandemic and with a flu epidemic in some states. “The covid epidemic, which has cooled in recent days, is still present. It is still at risk, we are seeing what is happening in other countries with the new variant. We cannot relax”, says Magarinos.
Balance released by the Ministry of Health indicates that the Brazil has more than 30 registered cases of the new variant of the coronavirus, Ômicron. Ômicron infections are multiplying rapidly in Europe, the United States (USA) and Asia. Therefore, several countries resumed measures of social distancing.
The increase in the number of flu cases is a phenomenon that repeats itself year after year during the autumn and winter of each hemisphere. In 2021, however, specialists were surprised by an epidemic that began in Rio de Janeiro in mid-spring and it shows signs of having already arrived in other states in midsummer.
care
To prevent both diseases, it is important to continue to adopt preventive measures against respiratory viruses, such as wearing a mask, avoiding crowds and closed environments, and cleaning your hands frequently. Another important point is not to leave home with flu symptoms. “The epidemic does not spread alone. We are the ones who transmit”, said the director of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm), Flávia Bravo, in an interview with Brazil Agency.
See too
+ Horoscope: check today’s forecast for your sign
+ Video: Driver leaves Tesla car on autopilot and sleeps on SP highway
+ Food stamps: understand what changes with new rules for benefit
+ See which were the most stolen cars in SP in 2021
+ Expedition identifies giant squid responsible for ship wreck in 2011
+ Everything you need to know before buying a crockpot
+ Discovered in Armenia most eastern aqueduct of the Roman Empire
+ US Agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
+ Passenger attacks and pulls out two stewardess teeth
+ Aloe gel in the drink: see the benefits
+ Lemon-squeezing trick becomes a craze on social media
+ Lake Superior: the best freshwater wave in the world?
#Flu #covid19 #Specialists #emphasize #importance #testing #ISTOÉ #MONEY