Australia has just experienced a short but cruel flu season 2022 Australia in the Southern Hemisphere has just experienced a short but cruel flu season - the worst in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 4, 745 people have died in Australia, including 2-year-old children!

Australia has just experienced a short but cruel flu season

2022 Australia in the southern hemisphere has just experienced a short but cruel flu season - this is the worst in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. As of June 4, 745 people have died in Australia, including 2-year-old children! Australia is experiencing its deadliest flu season in five years! Melbourne cases surged by 500%.

According to statistics, last year, there were only 6598 influenza cases in Australia, but as many as 5049 cases were reported across Australia in the first four months of this year!

By May, as the weather became colder, the number of influenza cases increased sharply.

According to the " Daily Mail ", as the Australian flu season begins early, young people face the highest risk of infection.

Australia's national disease testing data shows that 10,599 influenza cases have been recorded so far on May 20 this year, of which 7,173 were recorded in the two weeks ending May 8.

According to data from the Australian Ministry of Health, the infection rate among people aged 15-24 and children under 10 years old is the highest. Since April this year, 153 cases have been hospitalized, including 7 in intensive care unit .

The peak of influenza each year is usually from June to September, but due to previous epidemic restrictions, Australia has not experienced a typical flu season since 2019.

Australia's deputy chief medical officer Sonya Bennett and chief nursing and midwife Alison McMillan urged people to get vaccinated and protect themselves from the impact of COVID-19 and influenza.

They said: "It is safe to get registered influenza vaccine in Australia, and it is the best way to protect yourself from infection and spread the virus. Generally speaking, even if you are vaccinated, you may be infected with the influenza virus, but it will not be very serious."

The traditional flu season in the northern hemisphere has come

Experts say that the Asian, European and American countries in the northern hemisphere may be the next, especially China, the United States, Europe and other countries.

The top infectious disease expert in the United States and the chief medical consultant for the US President of COVID-19 Anthony Fauci In an interview with reporters, the United States should prepare for the "quite bad flu season" because COVID cases are mixed with each other.

His prediction has been recognized by other experts and is based on the case of Australia this summer (winter). Scientists in the Northern Hemisphere look at the Southern Hemisphere for possible signs of flu season. This year, Australia's flu season is shorter than normal, but the peak of cases occurs earlier and higher, with children and adolescents bearing the brunt.

"If you look at what happens in the southern hemisphere flu season, Australia has suffered a pretty bad blow," Dr. George Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, told Fortune. “I expect at least one bad flu season,” if not a bad COVID season.

The first flu season after the outbreak began actually did not exist, which may be due to the prevention measures of COVID-19, such as masks, social distancing and isolation, which also prevented the spread of the flu. Scientists then predicted that last year's flu season would be an amazing season—in a sense of the " twin season" because it overlaps with COVID.

However, according to a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Although the flu season in the United States is worse than the previous season, it is milder than the flu season before the pandemic.

However, this year, COVID prevention measures are almost non-existent now. The United States no longer has mandatory mask orders, including in medical institutions, and people do not need to be required to maintain a safe distance. The United States may be ready for a long-awaited phenomenon, Dr. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University (Vanderbilt University ), recently told reporters.

"This year is likely to be the year when we see twin phenomenon," he said. “That is, our COVID surges, and the flu is increasing. We can let them affect our population at the same time."

influenza cases began to ticke in the United States, with nearly 700 cases reported last month in the penultimate week of September, with the percentage of positive flu tests rising in the past month.

last week, officials from World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control met with health after fears of a possible surge in COVID and flu later this year System and hospital leaders. Federal health officials encourage Americans to receive both flu vaccines and new Omicron-specific vaccine boosters this fall, saying that doing so is safe and convenient.

Benjamin also recommends stocking up on COVID tests.

"If you have flu-like symptoms , check for COVID," he said. "If it's not COVID, go to the clinic to see if it's flu." It's likely either this or that. "

The World Health Organization also issued a statement on October 5 that the number of new crown infections, hospitalizations and deaths in many countries have increased recently. With the arrival of the influenza season in the Northern Hemisphere, it is expected that the new crown and other viruses such as the flu are spreading simultaneously in the future, warning countries not to take it lightly.

WHO Director-General Tseng Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhanom Adhan Measures taken to curb the spread of the new coronavirus can help reduce the spread of influenza, "but since most of these measures have been cancelled and the flu is back, (so countries) should not be taken lightly."

Technical director of the WHO Health Emergency Project, Van Kelkhofer, said that Omickron is still the main mutant strain that is currently transmitted worldwide, and the new coronavirus continues to evolve and spreads to an "incredible" intensity around the world.

Van Kelkhofer once again emphasized the importance of getting the new coronavirus vaccine , which can especially effectively reduce the risk of severe illness and death among high-risk groups. She said that personal protective measures such as wearing masks in densely populated areas are to prevent influenza. It is also effective and is recommended for high-risk populations to get influenza vaccine.

New study found that growing coronavirus may also be related to other influenza viruses

Recently, researchers found that previous exposure to another coronavirus, "a virus that causes the common cold," may have an impact on some patients.

In the new study, published by scientists affiliated to Harvard University, on September 26, on the preprint server medRxiv of Yale University, the authors tested the blood of 43 patients who had arthritis or similar diseases before the COVID-19 outbreak.

These patients who later developed into growing coronavirus showed antibody responses to the coronavirus Not strong evidence, as well as strong responses to antibodies to OC43, one of several epidemic coronaviruses that cause the common cold. The authors speculate that these patients are likely to have a cold sometime before they get infected with the new coronavirus. When their body’s immune system is exposed to the coronavirus caused by the novel coronavirus, they produce OC43 antibodies, which, although similar, are less than ideal, lead to chronic inflammation and other long-term symptoms of the new coronavirus. Dr. Eric Top, professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Institute and founder and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the new findings come from a “very interesting report that adds a possible basis for long-term COVID-19.” ”

Top tweeted on September 26 that researchers have looked at the previous infection with Epstein-Barr virus (a herpes that can cause mononucleosis) and other viruses that may help the development of COVID-19. But this new study focuses on the role that the common cold may play for the first time.

In addition to the COVID-19 virus, there are many types of COVID-19, and each type has a different trigger .While the previous infection with this common cold may play a role in patients with COVID-19 patients, it may or may not work in other categories of patients.

But especially for arthritis patients, this finding could be used as a way to identify long-term COVID-19 and it is possible to develop a treatment, they added.

According to data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau this summer, nearly 20% of American adults with COVID-19, an estimated 50 million Americans, have reported long-term symptoms of the new coronavirus after the acute infection subsides.

Long-term COVID-19 is roughly defined as symptoms that last or appear for a long time after the initial COVID-19 infection disappears, but the consensus definition has not been widely accepted.

Many experts believe that the long-term COVID-19 pandemic is best defined as the chronic fatigue syndrome -like symptoms that appear after infection with the new coronavirus disease, similar to other post-viral syndromes that appear after infection with herpes, Lyme disease or even Ebola virus . Other post-coronary bypass grafting complications, they say, like organ damage and post-intensive care syndrome, should not be defined as long-term COVID-19. The

coronavirus was named after its crown-shaped appearance under a microscope and was found in the 1960s. Four types, including OC43, are usually spread in the population and usually cause a cold. Three other coronaviruses involve more serious symptoms: MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) that caused the outbreak in 2012; SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which caused an epidemic in the early 21st century; and the current COVID-19 virus.

Sharp comments:

Before the global COVID-19 pandemic, the flu season will always attack humans every year. When human society strengthens injecting influenza vaccines in advance, in general, the harm to humans as a whole is still within the scope of various countries. During the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020 and 2021, in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, people have basically not made much twists and turns in the flu season in the past two years! However, this year in 2022, due to the long-term COVID-19 epidemic, people in many countries have become tired of this kind of life, and some governments have also slacked off. Measures to protect the new crown epidemic have been cancelled in many countries. Influenza, an old friend of humans, is starting to make a comeback! Some countries in the southern hemisphere have already tasted bitter results this year. So, with the arrival of the traditional flu season in the Northern Hemisphere, are we countries such as Asia, North America, and Europe, including China? Can we meet the severe challenge of the "dual epidemic" of the new crown and influenza?

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