With an outbreak of flu, São Paulo will test every patient against Covid

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The Municipal Health Department of São Paulo begins this week to run rapid tests to identify cases of Covid-19 in all patients with flu-like symptoms who seek the municipal network. According to the folder, testing will be by the antigen method.

The tests began when, according to the management folder Ricardo Nunes (MDB), there was an increase in people with flu-like illness who sought care.

According to the secretariat, in the first 15 days of December, 91,882 people were seen with flu-like symptoms, with 45,325 suspected cases of Covid-19, against a total of 111,949 patients in the entire month of November, with 56,220 of them having suspected of having the new coronavirus.

The number of people with flu symptoms in the municipal network in the first half of December represents 82% of the records in the 30 days of November.

The influenza A H3N2 virus, the same one associated with the Rio de Janeiro flu epidemic and which is circulating in the city of São Paulo, is also already causing an increase in care in the private network.

It is one of the subtypes of the influenza A virus. The symptoms caused by this virus are the classic flu ones: high fever with acute onset, headache, joint pain, nasal cold, and sore throat and cough. In some cases there may be vomiting and diarrhea, symptoms more common in children.

Although the flu vaccine used in the immunization program has the H3N2 strain in its composition, it is not the same one currently circulating in Rio and São Paulo. This one, called Darwin [cidade na Austrália onde ela foi identificada pela primeira vez], is not covered by the current vaccine.

“The secretariat continues to monitor the epidemiological scenario of viral diseases in the city, including the influenza virus”, says the municipal folder, in a note.

According to the secretariat, hospitals collect samples of nasal secretions from patients hospitalized in ICUs (Intensive Care Units) or in sentinel health units, such as AMAs (Ambulatory Medical Assistance), children’s and general hospitals, both public and private.

“These samples are sent to the Public Health Laboratory of the Instituto Adolfo Lutz, which identifies whether it is in fact influenza and also what type of virus it is,” he says.

“The identification of the types of circulating viral strains allows us to assess the behavior of the flu virus in the city, subsidizing the secretariat in its assistance actions, vaccinations, health education campaigns and other relevant interventions”, he says.

According to experts, the best thing to be done at this time is for people to continue wearing masks and avoiding agglomerations.

This year, in the city of São Paulo, according to the secretariat, 119,873 cases of srag were reported, requiring hospitalization. Of these, 205 (0.2%) were confirmed to be caused by the influenza virus. In 2020, 120,850 cases of hospitalized srag were reported, of which 242 were classified as srag due to influenza.

Of the 205 current cases, 20 (9.8%) were positive for influenza A (H1N1) pdm09A, four (3.8% for seasonal influenza A (H3), 134 (34.3%) for influenza A (not subtyped) and 47 (19.9%) for influenza B.

“Seasonal influenza is an acute febrile infectious disease with a greater risk of complications in some vulnerable groups. The disease can progress to more severe forms such as srag and even death”, says an excerpt from the note from the municipal secretariat.

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