▲ Corornavirus sampling in Alexandra, a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa.Photo App
angeles cruz martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Friday December 9, 2022, p. 18
Although the appearance of new respiratory viruses is not expected, the health system must be aware of the increase in these infections in the first quarter of 2023, when the temperature traditionally drops and the circulation of different strains increases, said José Luis Sandoval, a pulmonologist at the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases (INER).
He explained that the high number of patients in recent weeks could increase in the following months, and it is possible that some – not the majority – have a double illness (covid and influenza) at the same time. In these cases, dual treatments will be needed and before confirming such a clinical condition. Although it could be a serious problem, there is currently an advantage that testing for SARS-CoV-2 has become widespread and its presence can be confirmed or ruled out very quickly.
Sandoval participated yesterday in a conference organized by Laboratorios Chinoin, in which he warned that during the covid-19 pandemic antibiotics were used excessively, which caused bacterial resistance to go from 20 to 40 percent. This will have serious repercussions in the future, especially since drugs to combat new infections have not been developed for several years.
He said that doctors are working so that hospitals return to the 20 percent of patients who present infections resistant to antibiotics, as in the pre-pandemic, because It has happened to all doctors
that someone enters a hospital for appendix surgery (among others that are frequent), acquires a resistant infection, spends a month hospitalized and, in the worst case, dies from that cause. These are disappointing situations for the medical group because it was a routine surgery for which the patient would only be in the hospital for two days, but the antibiotics did not work.
Francisco Javier Saynes, otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon, explained that 95 percent of respiratory infections are caused by viruses, so antibiotics should not be used.
In 2020, around 14 million of these infections were registered in the country, the majority in children from one to four years of age and in those over 60 years of age. Only 5 percent of the total can develop complications, such as inflammation of the ear or nose or pneumonia.
The specialist warned about the importance that, based on the teaching left by the covid-19, those affected go to the doctor in the first days of symptoms.
