Coronavirus and the flu shot: What you need to know

VIWE NDONGENI-NTLEBI

With covid-19 spreading in South Africa, experts say it’s highly important to get flu vaccines because flu symptoms are similar to Covid-19 symptoms

IN SOUTH Africa there is a debate about flu injections, yet up to 11 000 people die from the flu annually.

With Covid-19 spreading in South Africa, experts say it’s important to get flu vaccines because flu symptoms are similar to Covid-19 symptoms.

While the range of symptoms for the two viruses is similar, the risk of severe disease appears to be different. For Covid-19, data to date suggest that 80% of infections are mild or asymptomatic, 15% are severe, requiring oxygen and 5% are critical infections, requiring ventilation. These fractions of severe and critical infection would be higher than that of flu.

Dr Morgan Mkhatshwa, head of operations at Bonitas Medical Fund, says this is an important point of difference between flu and Covid-19. Influenza has a shorter incubation period and can spread faster than Covid-19. Further, transmission in the first 3-5 days of illness, or potentially pre-symptomatic transmission, is a major driver of transmission for influenza.

Although with Covid-19, people can be infected by someone 24-48 hours before the onset of symptoms, this is not the major driver of transmission.

THE CDC has dispelled the myth that the flu shot can cause flu. | KAROLINA GRABOWSKA Pexels

Good news according to recommendations published by the NICD for influenza management, the seasonal flu that usually makes its way around during winter months, is one of the main causes of pneumonia or lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), and between 8 and 10% of all patients with pneumonia test positive for influenza. In recent years, annual flu epidemics have resulted in an estimated 3 to 5 million cases of severe illness, and around 290 000 to 650 000 deaths globally. While influenza surveillance monitoring indicates that we did not experience a typical flu season last year, according to experts this was highly unusual and was in most part due to the preventative measures taken against Covid-19.

The US Centres for Disease Control dispel the myth that a flu shot can cause flu. “Flu vaccines given with a needle are currently made either with flu vaccine viruses that have been ‘inactivated’ and are not infectious, or with no flu vaccine viruses at all. The most common side-effects from the shot are soreness, redness, tenderness or swelling where the shot was given. Serious allergic reactions to flu vaccines are very rare,” the organisation advises.