COVID-19 Is Not the Flu: Four Graphs From Four Countries.
Front Public Health
; 9: 628479, 2021.
Artículo
en Inglés
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1154263
ABSTRACT
Background:
COVID-19 has caused a global public health emergency. Government mitigation strategies included a series of behavior-based prevention policies that had a likely impact on the spread of other contagious respiratory illnesses, such as seasonal influenza. Our aim was to explore how 2019-2020 influenza tracked onto COVID-19 pandemic and its mitigation methods. Materials andMethods:
We linked the WHO FluNet database and COVID-19 confirmed cases (Johns Hopkins University) for four countries across the northern (Canada, the United States) and southern hemispheres (Australia, Brazil) for the period 2016-2020. Graphical presentations of longitudinal data were provided.Results:
There was a notable reduction in influenza cases for the 2019-2020 season. Northern hemisphere countries experienced a quicker ending to the 2019-2020 seasonal influenza cases (shortened by 4-7 weeks) and virtually no 2020 fall influenza season. Countries from the southern hemisphere experienced drastically low levels of seasonal influenza, with consistent trends that were approaching zero cases after the introduction of COVID-19 measures.Conclusions:
It is likely that the COVID-19 mitigation measures played a notable role in the marked decrease in influenza, with little to no influenza activity in both the northern and southern hemispheres. In spite of this reduction in influenza cases, there was still community spread of COVID-19, highlighting the contagiousness of SARS-CoV-2 compared to influenza. These results, together with the higher mortality rate from SARS-CoV-2 compared to influenza, highlight that COVID-19 is a far greater health threat than influenza.Palabras clave
Texto completo:
Disponible
Colección:
Bases de datos internacionales
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Internacionalidad
/
Gripe Humana
/
Pandemias
/
Evaluación de Síntomas
/
COVID-19
Tipo de estudio:
Estudio observacional
/
Estudio pronóstico
Límite:
Femenino
/
Humanos
/
Masculino
País/Región como asunto:
America del Norte
/
America del Sur
/
Brasil
/
Oceanía
Idioma:
Inglés
Revista:
Front Public Health
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Artículo
País de afiliación:
Fpubh.2021.628479
Similares
MEDLINE
...
LILACS
LIS