Cape Town - The 2015 flu season has definitely been more intense than in previous years, says the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), which noted more people seeking outpatient advice from their local doctors and increased hospital admissions this year.
Dr Cheryl Cohen, head of epidemiology at the NICD’s Centre for Respiratory Diseases and Meningitis, said it was difficult to monitor influenza, but that the severity of illnesses could be measured by the number of doctor/patient consultations and hospital admissions.
Often people who experienced flu-like symptoms did not bother visiting a doctor, but Cohen said the private general practitioner sector this year reported an increase in the number of patients presenting with these symptoms.
This, together with the increase in flu-related admissions at mainly public hospitals, indicated that the 2015 season, which started on May 10, was worse than previous years.
Data was compiled from surveillance conducted in the Western Cape, Gauteng, North West, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
People should not, however, be alarmed at the results, Cohen urged, because this year’s strain was “well within the range seen for normal seasonal influenza”.
Actual figures were not yet available because the studies were complex, and it took time to calculate the number of hospitalisations and deaths.
Pharmacies had also been working around the clock to dispense medication to help address symptoms.
Steve Farrell, of Wynberg Pharmacy, agreed that “the flu has been particularly bad this season”.
He said the pharmacy sold more than the average number of nebulisers in May and June.
A nebuliser is a device which operates with a mask and is used for the inhalation of medication.
Waheed Abdurahman, pharmacist for the Clicks Group, said the retail chain had also seen a large increase in the number of nebulisers sold.
Several Clicks stores were out of stock over the weekend.
Asked about the increase in the number of cases of influenza, Abdurahman said: “Yes, there has been an increase, but not as big as the increase we had last year over the previous year.”
The feedback he got from pharmacists at Clicks stores indicated that patients had complained of severe and debilitating symptoms, and that it took time for them to completely recover.
Abdurahman
attributed the less serious increase to people opting to get the flu vaccine.
The NICD also noted that many patients who ended up being hospitalised had not been vaccinated.
“The influenza vaccine remains the primary means for preventing seasonal influenza infection. Influenza viruses are always changing,” it said, explaining that each year’s flu vaccine was made to protect against three viruses likely to cause disease in a particular year.
“The influenza vaccine cannot prevent all cases of influenza, but it is the best defence available against the disease.
“Vaccines should be given sufficiently early to provide protection for the winter, though it is never too late to vaccinate.”
Cohen strongly advised high-risk people, including pregnant women, young children, the elderly, and people with certain health conditions or a weakened immune system, to have the vaccine.
She said the type of flu which was seen most often in South Africa this year was the H1N1 strain, commonly referred to as swine flu.
It caused panic in 2009 but, according to the NICD, it has become part of the normal seasonal flu strain.
Weekend Argus