Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 13: With the spring spike of influenza cases in Kashmir valley, the Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today attributed the surge to lower levels of natural immunity in the population against flu viruses.
In a statement, DAK president and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan said that people have not been exposed to influenza in the past two flu seasons due to Covid restrictions which have led to lower levels of natural immunity within the population.
“We see influenza cases every year during winter months, but the last two seasons witnessed negligible flu cases. The decline was because of Covid precautions such as face masking and social distancing,” he said.
Now, that people are out without masks, travelling extensively, the business has resumed and children are back to school. The flu has made a comeback, the DAK president said.
He said that in typical years a good percentage of the population gets infected with these viruses and builds immunity against the infections. “What we are seeing is a couple of years where we didn’t see infections.”
Dr Nisar said flu viruses tend to mutate. “Small changes keep on happening. And that could be another reason that we have severe and prolonged flu cases in an unusual time of this year’s flu season.”
He noted that the H3N2 flu virus is not new and is the commonest seasonal flu virus and has been in circulation for the last 55 years.
General secretary DAK, Dr Arshad Ali said people who develop flu symptoms like cough, fever, runny nose and sore throat should isolate themselves till their symptoms resolve. “Doctors should prescribe antiviral medicines instead of antibiotics to flu patients,” he said.
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