People getting sick from flu in Pakistan, not COVID-19: NIH

• Thousands of cases of flu-like illness have been reported in Pakistan.
• The NIH says the H3N2 subtype of the influenza-A virus causes disease.
• COVID-19 positivity remained less than 1% last week.

Islamabad: The National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad has clarified that a type of influenza virus is causing severe respiratory disease in adults across Pakistan and not COVID-19, The news reported on Wednesday.

Thousands of cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) are reported daily in the country, the health institute said, adding that the H3N2 subtype of the influenza-A virus causes the illness.

Among children, it is respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that is making them sick across Pakistan, NIH officials said. They urged people to take preventive measures, including cough etiquette, to prevent themselves from respiratory illnesses.

“No, it’s not COVID-19 that’s making people sick these days in Pakistan. Our surveillance and testing shows that it is the H3N2 subtype of influenza-A that is sickening people in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, several cities of Sindh and most of Punjab these days,” said a senior NIH official. . The news.

The health official said people are blaming COVID-19 for respiratory illnesses. The positivity of COVID-19 remained less than 1% last week when only 16 cases were detected across Pakistan after 3,609 tests were conducted, he claimed. The majority of people were not tested for either COVID-19 or a flu-like illness, he added.

Severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) were reported from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, the NIH official said.

According to NIH data, around 46,000 cases of ILI were reported in the country apart from Punjab during the 49th week of the year. The highest number of ILI cases were reported from Sindh where over 25,000 were detected, KP reported 8,354 cases, Balochistan 7,856 cases and Azad Jammu and Kashmir 3,619 cases.

Punjab, where most of the respiratory diseases are reported from, does not share its data with NIH Islamabad. So authorities have no idea about the burden of respiratory disease in Pakistan’s largest province.

Commenting on the outbreak of influenza in Pakistan, renowned infectious disease expert Dr. Faisal Sultan said that influenza is being diagnosed more (due to the availability of PCR in many centers). “Sometimes it’s extended with weeks of fatigue attached to it,” he said.

“It is known in some cases that it can have a prolonged recovery. In addition, vulnerable parts of the population – elderly or with other heart or lung conditions – will have more complications (bacterial pneumonia),” said Dr Sultan.

Health experts and pulmonologists in Karachi also confirmed that influenza A was detected more frequently in the city compared to COVID-19. It was causing serious illness in co-morbid elderly (who had other diseases like diabetes, hypertension, etc.), they said.

“Mostly, it’s the flu. We’ve seen whole families infected with flu symptoms in Karachi. We’ve found the Infleunza-A virus to be the cause of respiratory disease, which sometimes causes the elderly to be hospitalized with comorbidities. In young adults, it’s self-limiting, meaning that they recover on their own,” said Dr Raeef Ahmed, a pulmonologist in Karachi.

He urged people not to use antibiotics to treat the flu, saying they have found good results of an antiviral drug Tammy Flu among hospitalized adults.

To a query about the availability of flu shots or flu vaccine, he said the vaccine was not available in the market. Now, it’s too late to get a flu shot, he added.

Renowned epidemiologist Dr Rana Muhammad Safdar has urged people to adopt the same precautions they used during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent themselves from the respiratory disease.

“Poor air quality, smog in Punjab, the federal capital, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and other areas are increasing the chances of respiratory diseases. It is not COVID-19, but influenza viruses, that are making people sick,” he said.

Safdar advised people to gargle with warm salt water before going to bed to prevent the chances of throat infection.