Thanks to coronavirus, South Africa basically skipped flu season - The Washington Post - 0 views
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flu infection transmission south africa pandemic
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The effectiveness of coronavirus measures in preventing flu transmission has left doctors in South Africa with a riddle: Why did they stop flu in its tracks while South Africa ended up in the top five countries globally for coronavirus cases, which now stand at nearly 600,000?
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“It seems quite clear that the coronavirus is simply much, much more contagious than the flu,” she said. “This isn’t a fluke — this is proof that simple containment measures, when broadly followed, are effective against influenza transmission, but not enough for coronavirus.”
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Of all the measures South Africa put in place, Dawood said the most important against the flu was school closures. Studies have shown that children exhibit the highest rates of infection and illness due to influenza. “I think that was the one that interrupted flu’s whole chain,”
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experts have offered numerous explanations for why it is more infectious than the seasonal flu. Foremost is the extent to which it spreads when those who carry it are asymptomatic. Flu is almost always transmitted through symptoms such as sneezing and coughing.
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Many people also carry “background immunities” for influenza, Dawood said. Repeated infections, as well as worldwide annual vaccination campaigns, have given large portions of the global population at least some influenza antibodies, although new strains appear nearly every year.
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With coronavirus cases climbing steeply at the beginning of the country’s flu season, many people rushed to clinics to get flu shots, hoping to avoid at least one co-morbidity.
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The continued implementation of personal protective measures may be so effective against flu transmission that entire strains of the virus that relied on incubation in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter before being passed back north might be eliminated for good
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“If it works out like this, it would be a very beautiful positive side effect of covid, one of the few good things to come of it.”
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The main threat to that possibility is reintroduction from the Northern Hemisphere, where many countries, and parts of the United States in particular, have not required mask-wearing and school closures.