Lebanon is witnessing a widespread spread of seasonal viruses, following they disappeared in the past two years as a result of the #Coronavirus pandemic.
Despite the few calls that the Ministry of Education received from the schools, and following communicating with the Ministry of Health, the schools were informed not to close and to take the necessary preventive measures.
Khoury explains to An-Nahar that, “The Epidemiological Surveillance Department in the Ministry of Public Health confirms that there is no need to close classes or schools due to seasonal colds, but rather preventive measures are sufficient and not to receive students who have cold symptoms.
Khoury notes, “In the Ministry of Education, there is a hotline 01772000 run by a joint operations room between the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Lebanese Red Cross. When a call is received regarding a critical health issue, the Ministry of Public Health is contacted to decide what is necessary.”
Is the influenza virus the only one responsible for this large spread of infections in Lebanese society? Does the difference in strain affect the difference in symptoms?
The head of the Bacterial Diseases Research Center at the American University and a specialist in pediatrics, Professor Ghassan Dabibo, confirms to “An-Nahar” that “the different strains of influenza do not affect the symptoms that generally constitute a high fever, headache, body pain, coughing, runny nose and sore throat.” While children may suffer from additional symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea and vomiting.
He says, “The laboratory tests that are conducted in some laboratories for influenza strains are usually used to distinguish between influenza A and B. They are also used to determine the type of strain, if it is, for example, influenza A H1N1 or A H3N2, because then we need accurate tests that are available in large university laboratories, through PCR technology.
However, Dibebo adds that “every person who is diagnosed with influenza A is considered to have H1N1 influenza until this generalization and appreciation spread among people and some laboratories, while the prevailing strain today, according to the Infectious Diseases Center at the American University of Beirut Medical Center, is H3N2 by 75 percent. With some cases recorded for H1N1 by 25 percent.
These two strains, H3N2 and H1N1, are the ones prevalent in Lebanese society at the present time. Nevertheless, Dabibo confirms that “there are 3 main viruses circulating today, which are the Corona virus that still exists, the influenza virus with the two strains that we talked regarding, and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that usually appears at this time of the year, and causes symptoms similar to influenza (fever). high – strong cough – shortness of breath and wheezing in the chest), and it spreads 29 percent more than influenza by 21 percent in the last two weeks of November.
Regarding the factors that led to this wide spread of viruses, Dabibo believes that “the main and most important factor is the absence of other respiratory viruses in light of the emergence and spread of the large Corona virus. Some of these viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, have disappeared within two years of the pandemic, and thus this led to This led to a decrease in societal immunity once morest these viruses, and an immunity gap occurred, especially among some groups, including children who do not have immunity once morest these respiratory viruses that were prevalent before the Corona pandemic.
Since the rate of vaccination once morest influenza is low, and in the absence of an effective vaccine once morest respiratory syncytial virus, we have witnessed a large spread of these viruses among children and the elderly.
As for the hospitalization rate resulting from infection with these seasonal viruses, according to Dabibo, it ranges between “2 percent to 5 percent, depending on the age group. The most affected groups are children under two years, and the elderly over 65 years. The reason is due to weak immunity in addition to Presence of other health problems.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Control (CDC), most children are infected with respiratory syncytial virus before they are two years old. Newborns get some passive protection from their mothers, who pass antibodies to them through suckling.
But what happened today?
The chance of children born during the pandemic, and those around them, catching this virus or other viruses has decreased in the past two years. Consequently, their immunity diminished or was not formed at all. So when these youngsters and their parents began to interact with others, they became more likely to get sick.
But when does the situation call for a child to be admitted to the hospital?
On the other hand, Dabibo refuses to close schools and classes, as, in his opinion, “prevention should have been provided through a vaccine, because these viruses are considered seasonal, and they appear and spread every year, and what differed this year is represented by their severity more compared to previous years, with the influence of the reasons we talked regarding in the start.
In addition, the virus changes and develops itself, and this change leads to a strong viral wave as a result of the new strain evading the acquired community immunity.