Learn what to do to avoid the emergency room if you have flu-like symptoms

Amid the H3N2 flu epidemic and the explosion of Covid cases with the ômicron variant, emergency rooms in São Paulo have waiting lines that can reach six hours. In early 2022, the demand for tests and the search for doctors grew exponentially.

In the capital of São Paulo, in the first three days of the year alone, 20,333 people with respiratory symptoms were treated in the municipal health network. There were 282 calls per hour, on average. Of the total attended, 11,585 had suspected Covid, the equivalent of 57%.

Health professionals, however, advise that the first flu symptoms can be treated at home and, in most cases, there is no need to go to hospitals.

“Most of the patients they are looking for are young people, without comorbidities, who leave the hospital with a prescription for Novalgina. [dipirona]. That doesn’t make sense,” says Santa Casa infectious disease specialist Fernanda Maffei.

According to Maffei, if the patient is not part of a risk group and has a mild condition, it is possible to treat him at home.

Coryza, body pain and fever are some of the symptoms that can be treated with painkillers. “In most cases [de influenza], it’s two or three days with symptoms. I recommend waiting a little. If you don’t have shortness of breath, you can stay at home, you don’t need to go to a hospital”, he says.

Patients who seek the health system to perform tests can go to laboratories and pharmacies, which also perform tests for both influenza and Covid-19, indicates the infectologist.

In these places, however, there is a cost — with a doctor’s request, health plans cover exams in certain cases. The patient needs to be informed before the service.

Maffei says that telemedicine, available in some health plans, is also a way out and can be used for patients to resolve doubts and explain symptoms during care.

She also says that the search for outpatient clinics should preferably be for the elderly and people who are part of risk groups, in the case, for example, of patients who have underlying diseases, such as asthma and severe bronchitis.

Raquel Muarrek, an infectious disease specialist at Rede D’or, also warns that, instead of going to the hospital, the patient can contact a doctor with whom they already have a follow-up.

Hospitals should be sought if symptoms persist and, even if medicated, the patient does not show clinical improvement within 24 to 48 hours.

Also an infectious disease specialist and member of the SBI (Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases), Renato Grinbaum recalls that hydration is very important for patients with flu-like symptoms.

He also explains that care to avoid the transmission of the virus to other people should also be maintained, such as social isolation, use of mask and hand hygiene.