Health officials are warning that this year’s flu season could be much worse than the previous two years as a “surge” in Covid cases is expected as people drop recent protective measures.
Global leaders are calling on governments to ensure an “agile response” is in place to cope with the predicted increase in winter illnesses.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it is too early to predict which countries will face the brunt of flu season but that health systems need to be ready.
WHO’s regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge warned that those considered at risk should ensure they have received their second booster as soon as possible.
“With autumn and winter approaching, we anticipate a surge in (Covid-19) cases – with or without a resurgence of seasonal influenza in Europe,” he said.
“People stabilised their lives without actually stabilising the pandemic.”
Asked about the risks of Europe’s impending flu season, Dr Catherine Smallwood, WHO Europe’s senior emergency officer, told a press briefing: “We can’t speak with any certainty because each region and each country has its own specificities, but we have looked quite closely at the flu season in the southern hemisphere.
“Looking at countries such as Australia, where they saw quite early and a sharp increase in influenza in the season that did contribute some pressures, also in Latin America, we saw some pressures on health systems.”
She added: “But we don’t know what’s going to come. What we do know is that it’s likely that the preventive measures that have really kept seasonal flu at bay won’t be in place in the same way that they were in 2020 and 2021.
“So there will likely be an interplay between the different viruses. It may not be a typical flu season, we might see an atypical – it might come early and might come (for) a shorter period, it might come later on.
“So we need to be really agile in our response and be ready to respond to any changes in the virus circulation.”
Dr Smallwood added: “What we’re expecting to see in the autumn and winter periods coming up in the European region is one or more waves of increased Sars-CoV-2 (the virus which causes Covid-19) activity – with or without the presence of additional waves of other respiratory viruses such as influenza.
“But not only influenza, we’ve seen throughout the past couple of years that other viruses have also taken advantage of the changes in the epidemiology in the region – we’ve seen that with RSV, for example, as well.”
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