By Majd Othman

KUWAIT: Flu is spreading all over the country among people of all ages with the advent of winter. After the pandemic, its effects have become stronger, especially in children, with symptoms like very high temperature and fatigue. Kuwait Times spoke to Senior Specialist, Respiratory and Internal Medicine, Dr Nouh Baqer, who explained the reason behind the strong effects of the flu and prevention methods. "Influenza has two groups of viruses: Influenza A and B. Group A is more prevalent in the world than group Band usually has more severe complications than influenza B. Influenza A includes the H and N groups that cause traditional flu and also swine flu, that spread widely in the past," he said.

Dr Nouh Baqer, Senior Specialist Respiratory and Internal Medicine

Reason for the spread of influenza

"In general, winter is time that flu infection is widespread among people. Globally, it lasts from October to January. Flu is not an unusual thing that we are not used to, but this year it started one month earlier," Dr Baqer said. "The reason that the effect of the flu is stronger than before is that in the last two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing that was enforced on people to protect them made contacts between people less, even by those who were not committed to health instructions, as social activities had reduced," he said.

"Then life returned to normal and people started to connect again, which helped to spread the flu. In addition, winter is the most active season for viruses. Most people are infected currently with upper respiratory tract influenza, not to mention that not all people are infected with only flu necessarily; there are cases of respiratory syncytial virus and rhinovirus, and it is possible some cases of new variants of COVID," he added.

"Viruses in general undergo some changes annually, what is known as antigenic drift. Also, every 5 to 10 years, there are mutations in viruses. Since people during the pandemic did not catch influenza, this change in the characteristics of viruses may have a stronger impact on people."

Symptoms and causes

"Normal flu and COVID may cause more symptoms with longer effects than other viral infections, while all of them could cause a rise in temperature," Dr Baqer said. On the spread of viral infections in Kuwait, he said: "Viruses in general are active with weather fluctuations, and most countries have weather fluctuations one to two times a year. We in Kuwait go through many stages of weather fluctuations between dust and humidity, in addition to annual seasons such as spring, which is accompanied by all kinds of allergies, and then the winter season, in which viruses activate automatically".

"This increases the spread of viruses, especially among children, who go to schools and nurseries and infection is transmitted between them faster. With children, the rate of viral infection is higher and maybe the child is exposed to infection twice in a month, and this is to be expected."

The best treatment for influenza

Dr Baqer pointed out the common mistake of people using antibiotics directly without consulting a doctor. "Antibiotics are not used for viral infections and flu treatment, because antibiotics are antibacterial. But if the flu fades and returns again after the fifth day and if symptoms are not the same, here we advise people to consult the doctor for the possibility of a bacterial infection accompanying the original viral infection - so-called superimposed bacterial infection, meaning that the viral infection made the area fertile for bacterial infection," he explained. "Visiting the doctor is necessary when the patient feels very tired breathing and is unable to take fluids. As for general fatigue and high temperature, there is no need to visit a doctor as long as the patient can drink fluids normally."

Preventive methods

"The main thing that I can recommend is the quadrivalent influenza vaccination, as it covers two types of influenza in group A and two types of influenza in group B. But there are some high-risk groups -those who are over 65 years of age and children below 5 years, especially between 6 months to two years, in addition to people who have an immune deficiency for any reason," Dr Baqer said.