“I don’t know if I’m used to it.
— Me, huh. germs. Humans. Ew.
“Imagine the return of the breath. From the spit. Two contagions!!
“Just in case, I’ll keep using it until the end of the summer.
— Big news. I stopped using it a long time ago.
— I am very against. And if the seventh wave comes?!
— I’ll finally be able to wear lipstick!!*
* true comments collected with gloves and alcohol gel
Less than two days to go before the mask, protective icon of the pandemic and perhaps the most important tool in the prevention of Covid-19, is officially abolished in closed spaces in Spain, after almost 2 years of mandatory use.
In many places, the transition to gaping mouths has been evident for weeks. On the streets, the mask was no longer mandatory in February, although it is still possible to see many people resisting with the said, even under the spring sun. Me included.
***
What awaits us in post-pandemic//post-mask life?
According to several Spanish epidemiologists, in addition to non-smudged lipsticks, an increase in cases of airborne diseases such as influenza, whooping cough and even eradicated viruses such as measles is to be expected.
These infectious diseases, temporarily silenced with the preventive measures adopted during the pandemic, have started to show up again in recent weeks, with the relaxation of surveillance.
In the case of Spain, influenza returns to the scene mainly, with emphasis (shy but consistent, and by several European countries) for the H3N2 subtype, a strain of influenza A that is related to the one that caused the global pandemic in Hong Kong. from 1968.
“We almost didn’t have the flu a few years ago because the entire viral space was taken over by SARS-CoV-2, but now that infections have dropped, it has a certain role again,” explains Lorenzo Armenteros, spokesman for the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG).
Furthermore, he says, all respiratory pathologies would be more accurately detected thanks to the improvement in detection systems perfected during the pandemic.
THE RETURN OF THE FLU
In March of this year, when winter still hit our bodies, the Spanish epidemiological control bodies detected the first outbreak of influenza since the beginning of the pandemic, exactly two years ago.
It came late: instead of the usual peak between December-January, it expanded in March, almost at the end of winter, following the cooling of the sixth and most recent wave of Spanish Covid.
In some localities, such as Navarra, hospitalizations for flu in March surpassed those for Covid for the first time since 2020, although both at “low levels”, according to the local government.
The common flu has reappeared with particular force in the communities of Castilla y León and Catalonia, where it was declared an epidemic at the end of March, as it exceeded 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
There was also an increase in cases in another 9 autonomous communities. In total, the Influenza Surveillance System in Spain (SVGE) detected 4,168 cases of flu between January and March, against only 12 in the same period in 2021.
According to the director of the National Influenza Center, José María Eirós, the situation “is normal”. “There’s no flu pandemic coming; there’s nothing to worry about,” he said.
Furthermore, the arrival of the hot seasons and outdoor life heralds the end of classic winter respiratory disorders, whose period of official monitoring in Spain usually runs from October to the end of March.
IMPORTED MEASLES
With the relaxation of post-pandemic health measures, even eradicated diseases such as measles have reappeared in Spain after an almost complete absence of two years.
In Valencia, for example, just under a dozen cases of “sarampión” have been identified since the beginning of the year, all imported — a sign of the resumption of mobility across borders.
For comparison, in 2019, 29 cases had been registered (all also imported); in 2020, only one, and last year, none.
In this case, according to the president of the Valencian Society of Pneumology, Eva Martínez, although the use of the mask during the pandemic has helped, 99% of the “merit” would go to the vaccine.
MASK: IT’S STILL USEFUL
To what extent will the end of the mask indoors affect the presence of infectious diseases among the population?
“Viruses look for their possibility to expand and appear when they can”, summarizes Óscar Zurriaga, from the Spanish Society of Epidemiology, in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El Diario. “In the case of flu and others, we gave them few options, because the measures we took for Covid-19 affected them.”
Now the thing is different. The withdrawal of health protection measures, “the relaxation in the use of the mask and the increase of social interactions” promote “the best circumstances for the expansion [da gripe e outras enfermidades] “, says Eirós, from the National Influenza Center.
According to Martínez, who is also head of the Pulmonology service at the Doctor Peset University Hospital in Valencia, the mask “was very important, especially for the flu, which is a serious illness that, when it affects elderly people, leads to hospitalizations.”
She supports the Spanish government’s decision to maintain the use of the mask in specific contexts such as public transport, geriatric centers and hospitals. “It’s uncomfortable to use it when we walk or exercise, but in other environments it doesn’t cost as much and protects us a lot”, she argues.
