2023-12-07 09:18:12
Par Léa Giandomenico
Published on
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You have undoubtedly noticed: lately, masks are reappearing on the noses of passers-by, or public transport users, and it is not uncommon to have a few colleagues absent due to Covid-19… or flu!
To tell the truth, we don’t always know which of these two diseases is the cause, because they both circulate, and the symptoms are similar, but it is not easy to know how to differentiate them.
Fever, headache, cough…
You should know that these two infections, both respiratory, are spread in the same way, via droplets and aerosols emitted by an infected person when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing or breathe.
Et the symptoms are similar : “Covid-19 is an illness classified as influenza: we suddenly have a fever, headaches, aches, cough, sometimes discomfort. What we also find in the flu,” infectious disease specialist François Bricaire explained to us for a previous article.
For Covid-19, however, “we observe specific symptoms such as anosmia, which is the loss of smell or taste of food”, recalls the WHO on its site.
However, people infected with one or the other virus can present different degrees of illness, and therefore different symptoms (or even no symptoms at all).
“To date, we are not able to distinguish the symptoms of Covid from those of the flu. The diagnosis can only be made by a rapid diagnostic test or by PCR,” explains Antoine Flauhault, epidemiologist and director of the Geneva Global Health Institute, contacted by actu.fr.
Covid-19 is actively circulating
At the moment, Covid and flu are actively circulating. According to the latest bulletin from Public Health France (SPF), published Wednesday November 29, 2023, “the indicators of acute respiratory infections were on the rise in community medicine and in hospitals”.
On the Covid-19 side, Public Health France reports a upward trend in suspicion of SARS-CoV-2 among the SOS Médecins acts and at the hospital for patients aged 65 and over.
The incidence rate of Covid-19 cases seen in general medicine consultations for an acute respiratory infection was estimated at 98 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from the Sentinels network. “ […] A rate increasing compared to that of the previous week. »
The JN.1 sub-variant in question
This is the Omicron JN.1 sub-variant, derived from the BA.2.86 sub-variant, which is circulating very actively in Western Europe at the moment. As with previous variants, the symptoms reported are fatigue, fever and cough.
“This variant contains a large number of mutations which distinguishes it from previous XBB variants, it is visibly very transmissible and spreads very quickly, but no particular severity profile has been reported,” according to the epidemiologist and director of the Geneva Global Health Institute.
Few cases of flu
For the flu, circulation is also accelerating, according to the latest SPF bulletin.
Four new regions enter the “pre-epidemic” phase. These are the Burgundy-Franche-Comté, Centre-Val de Loire, Grand Est regions as well as Guyana. Note that Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Île-de-France and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur have also been at this stage since last week.
The indicators of “flu and influenza-like illnesses” were “increasing in community medicine and concerned all age groups”, during the week of Monday November 27 to Sunday December 3, 2023.
Furthermore, as the reproduction rate of the coronavirus is much higher than that of the flu, almost the entire population risks being infected this winter by SARS-CoV-2, while only 5 to 10% of Europeans will be contaminated. by the seasonal influenza virus.
So if you are sick at the moment, it is probably more because of Covid-19. For Antoine Flahault, “there is no major interest in seeking the cause of the condition” (except for people at risk, or who are taking antiviral treatment).
“When you suffer from flu-like illness, whatever the cause, you should stay at home, stay in a separate room from the rest of the household, and wear a mask in the presence of others for 5 to 7 days following the first symptoms,” explains the director of the Geneva Global Health Institute. A recommendation which therefore applies to both infections.
How to protect yourself from these infections?
To reduce the risk of contamination, Antoine Flahault advises take out your mask, favoring FFP2. To protect once morest the virus, ventilation of premises remains one of the effective solutions.
“We can regret the absence of preventive measures implemented with regard to respiratory viruses by public authorities, apart from Belgium which has promulgated a law aimed at improving the quality of indoor air in places receiving the public. These viruses are essentially spread by aerosol in closed, crowded and poorly ventilated places,” says the epidemiologist.
Let us also remember that vaccination is an effective way to protect once morest these two pathologies, as the health authorities point out.
Vulnerable people, that is to say at risk of hospitalization or death following Covid (the elderly, immunocompromised, pregnant women and their infants), if they do not receive a booster vaccination, might pay a heavy price this winter once more.
A flu vaccination campaign has been underway since mid-October and until January 31.
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