flu season

Cropped shot of a handsome young man sitting in his bed and blowing his nose while suffering from a cold. Photo: Getty Images

Lockdown may have delayed the onset of the flu season – NICD

The lockdown coupled with increased awareness surrounding hygiene and the mandatory mask laws could be the reason the flu season appears to have started late.

flu season

Cropped shot of a handsome young man sitting in his bed and blowing his nose while suffering from a cold. Photo: Getty Images

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) believe that the lockdown instituted to control the spread of coronavirus may have delayed the onset of the flu season in South Africa.

The lockdown coupled with increased awareness surrounding hygiene and the mandatory mask laws could be the reason the flu season appears to have started late.

Flu season late to kick off

The NICD say they detected two flu strains in the Western Cape by the beginning of last month only, when the cases of influenza usually experienced a big spike in April.

“There has been no influenza circulating from all other provinces in 2020,” it said.

The NICD said the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), a common respiratory virus that usually causes mild cold-like symptoms usually begins its season at the end of February but, this year, it was barely detected by the end of May.

“In the previous three years, the average start of RSV season ranged between week seven to week nine, therefore the start of the season in 2020 is substantially delayed compared to previous years, possibly in part due to the national lockdown,” the NICD said.

Huge demand for flu vaccine

Huge demand for flu vaccine’s has left the country in seriously short supply.

The NICD and Lung institute recommend getting the flu shot but the South African Medical Journal called for the prioritisation of vaccines for certain individuals.

“In order to maintain the integrity of South Africa’s health-care system at a time that is likely to coincide with our winter influenza season, one important measure will be to optimise influenza vaccination of health-care workers and high-risk patients to reduce the likelihood of a ‘double hit’.”

“Adults in high-risk groups for invasive pneumococcal disease, such as those with HIV and other causes of immunosuppression, should also receive pneumococcal conjugate vaccine,” said the authors of a paper published in the journal, “optimising influenza vaccination during a SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in South Africa could help maintain the integrity of our healthcare system.”

Get it if you can

Other experts have thrown their weight behind recommendations that all South Africans who are able to should get the flu shot.

“Vaccinating against flu, especially this year, means that you will potentially be less of a burden to the health-care system, and avoid being flagged as a possible coronavirus case,” professor and head of the division of medical virology at the University of Stellenbosch Wolfgang Preiser recently wrote in a paper for the Lung Institute.

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