Respiratory infections typical of this time of year are beginning to be noticed in the Region of Murcia, although at the moment without a special impact on the health system. Incidence rates are low in covid, although they are rising, and in flu they are still far from the seasonal epidemic thresholds. However, in consultations at health centers and in emergencies, an increase in patients who come for other types of viruses that are behind upper tract infections, such as pharyngitis or colds, is detected.
The Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System (ARI) in Primary Care detected a 22.7% increase in covid infections during the past week, although the rate (31.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants) is still not particularly high. The increase was greater in influenza, 31%, although in this case the incidence is still very low, 8 cases per 100,000.
Yes, there is a much greater circulation of other respiratory viruses that are behind bronchitis, pharyngitis, laryngitis or other infections. The incidence of all respiratory infections stands at 661 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, 1.5% more than the previous week. This very small increase is added to that experienced during the previous seven days, which was 29%.
“We already notice an increase”
“We have already noticed an increase in consultations related to upper respiratory infections, but there is still no flu epidemic nor is there at the moment a serious healthcare overload,” explains Jesús Abenza, president of the Murcia Society of Family and Community Medicine (Smumfyc ). In addition to consultations for banal viral symptoms, “decompensations of patients with COPD or respiratory failure” are also beginning to arrive at health centers, says Abenza. They are chronic patients who can be affected by any respiratory infection, aggravating their condition.
The perception is similar in hospital emergencies. «Last weekend we began to notice the arrival of more patients with respiratory viruses, but not excessively. There is no flu, nor saturation,” explains Pascual Piñera, head of the Emergency Service at the Reina Sofía Hospital.
What is foreseeable, both Piñera and Abenza recall, is that “in the coming weeks” infections will begin to multiply, until the arrival of the seasonal flu epidemic.
In this sense there are several unknowns. On the one hand, how the flu will behave this season, and which of the different variants of influenza A or B will be predominant. For now, the flu vaccination campaign continues in the group of those over 60 years of age. The vaccine also continues to be administered to pregnant women, chronic patients, healthcare personnel and other essential services and, this year, as a novelty, to smokers.
In addition to the flu, Covid cases are expected to increase in the coming weeks, although this virus does not yet have a typically seasonal behavior.
bronchiolitis
What there is the most hope for this season is the effect that the massive administration of the drug nirsevimab to newborns may have, to protect them from the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes the majority of bronchiolitis. Between 80% and 88% of newborns have received this monoclonal antibody in the Region. According to the results of clinical trials of the drug, these high vaccine coverage should avoid the usual saturation in pediatric emergencies due to the admission of babies affected by bronchiolitis.
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