DR TIM ALLISON: Flu is still a cause of concern
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When Covid first emerged at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020 it was a new threat, and a lot of research work was focused on finding out how the virus behaved and how it could best be tackled.
Before Covid, the biggest threat from a virus was thought to come from influenza and many of the plans that were in placed focused on influenza or flu as we usually say.
To some extent we are now in the opposite position.
We have been dealing with Covid for over two years and flu has not featured much. We have still had the annual flu vaccinations but the number of cases of the disease have been low.
The number of Covid cases in the community still vastly exceeds the number of flu cases, but we should be wary of the threat of flu.
Influenza has been with us for centuries and its name goes back to a medieval belief in the influence of the stars on disease. Rather than the stars though, flu is caused by a virus.
It is a different type of virus from the one that causes Covid but like Covid it changes over time. Many diseases become less serious when the microbes that cause them change over decades, but influenza does not seem to be like that. The way it changes means that it has kept its ability to cause serious illness.
Usually the changes to the flu virus are small but sometimes the changes are more profound such as the changes in the virus that preceded the Spanish flu pandemic just over a century ago. We have not seen much flu over the last few winters and flu control has been helped by the measures put in place to tackle Covid as well as the reduction in travel across the world caused by the pandemic.
Low flu numbers have been good news, but it does mean that people have not had chance to build up immunity to the flu virus through recent infection. This means that as a whole population we are more vulnerable to a new flu virus.
We can’t be certain that a new wave of flu will spread this winter, but we are seeing an increase in flu in other parts of the world. When this happens it often means that we too will have more flu.
The characteristics of Covid and flu do differ, but many of the ways to control the viruses are similar. These include staying at home when we are ill, washing our hands regularly and well, good hygiene when we cough or sneeze and above all taking up the offer of vaccinations.
I have written about these things often, but the more we get into the habit of doing them the more likely we are to keep the diseases under control.
Dr Tim Allison is NHS Highland’s director of public health and policy.
