Date Published: 26/11/2020
ARCHIVED - First cases of flu have been reported in Spain but numbers are much lower than normal
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
In fact, they’re 99 per cent lower than the average for the last five years at this point of the year!!!!
The approach of the festive season in Spain usually coincides with the first warnings of the spread of the annual flu epidemic, but this year all of the indications are that the number of cases is likely to be far lower than is habitually the case.
This is due in large part to the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought about important changes in behaviour among the population in general and made transmission of the virus less probable. One of the main aspects, of course, is the wearing of face masks and the use of disinfectant hand gels, practices which have become almost universal since the first cases of Covid were reported in Spain in February and which considerably reduce the risk of contracting other viruses, flu included.
In addition, social distancing has rapidly become the norm for most Spaniards, and this has coincided with a far greater keenness to receive the flu vaccine offered by the public health service. It is reported that so far 14 million people have been vaccinated this autumn, an increase of 5 million (or 55 per cent) over the figure for the 2019 campaign, representing an encouraging response to an initiative to prevent co-infection of Covid-19 and flu which began as long ago as March.
It is no doubt partly due to the unprecedented circumstances which dominate life in Spain at the moment that it is not until now that the first cases of flu this winter are being reported in Spain. Between the 36th and 45th week of 2020 (from the start of September to mid-November) only 148 cases were confirmed, while the average equivalent for the same period in the previous five years was approximately 17,000: on other words, there has been a drop of over 99 per cent!
Of course, flu epidemics vary from year to year, and sometimes they begin later. In same period last year the figure had already reached 5,000 by mid-September, while on the other hand in 2015 it was still at only 650 by mid-November. Looking further back, in 2004-05 the epidemic did not start to grow significantly until well into January, and the same could yet happen this winter, but the evidence seems to suggest clearly that the pandemic has contributed to significantly reducing the effects of flu.
Note: the flu vaccine boasts an effectiveness rate of between 52 and 70 per cent in those aged 50 to 64 and between 38 and 46 per cent in the over-65s, but it should also be borne in mind that those who do contract the flu after receiving the vaccine are far less likely to suffer serious illness as a result.
Flu kills around 4,000 people a year in Spain, a figure which is almost entirely avoidable. The annual reports produced at the end of the flu season always show that a high percentage of those who died from flu, or from illnesses exacerbated following a flu contagion, such as pneumonia, had chosen not to accept the free vaccine offered by the health authorities.