JOIN USAhead of third wave, pediatricians endorse flu vaccine to filter out Covid cases
As the city braces for the predicted third wave, more pediatricians are endorsing the use of the influenza vaccine to reduce confusion in filtering Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) cases from Covid-19.
“By administering flu vaccines on a wider scale, we can curtail the number of influenza cases. Therefore, many ILI cases that come up after vaccination will likely be genuine cases of Covid-19,” said Dr Srikanta J T, pediatrician at Aster CMI Hospital.
Widespread flu vaccinations could also ensure that health infrastructure is not strained by flu cases competing with Covid-19 cases for beds and medical services, pediatricians added.
The issue needs greater attention as the flu season is likely to coincide with the predicted third wave, expected between September and December.
Dr Shenoy Bhaskar, head of pediatrics, Manipal Hospitals (Old Airport Road) said the flu season generally starts in June and ends in October.
With influenza symptoms overlapping with Covid, the rapid initial diagnosis has become difficult for the doctors. Some of the overlapping symptoms include fever, respiratory difficulty and coryzal manifestations such as a running nose, sneezing, sore throat, cough, loss of taste and smell, mild burning of the eyes and pressure in the ears or sinuses due to mucosal swelling.
Nevertheless, only about 20-30% of all children get the flu shot annually, which falls significantly below the threshold to minimise the occurrence of the disease in the general child population.
“With roughly between 50 and 100 children out of a thousand contracting influenza in an average year, this is behind the big push by pediatricians to get more children vaccinated this year,” Dr Bhaskar said.
Vaccine confusion
The move has some in the pediatric community up in arms, especially over reports that the influenza vaccine will offer some protection against Covid-19.
This is the claim made by a University of Michigan study published on March 23. The study claimed that of nearly "13,000 people who got a flu shot the previous year, 4% tested positive for Covid-19. Of the 14,000 who hadn't gotten a flu shot, nearly 5% tested positive for Covid-19".
“The influenza vaccine cannot provide protection against Covid-19 because the viruses are different. Parents should be clear about that,” said Dr Asha Benkappa, head of pediatrics, Dr Chandramma Dayananda Sagar Institute of Medical Education and Research.
Some pediatricians described the flu shot push as a money-making enterprise to use up this year’s flu vaccine shots before they expire in November.