Lab tests can help differentiate cases of COVID-19 or the common flu and enable treatment and adequate monitoring of patients, according to specialists interviewed by Agência Brasil. Both diseases have similar symptoms, especially in the first few days, which makes clinical diagnosis difficult.
Cough, headache, muscle fever, sore throat, runny nose, red eyes, watery eyes. All are symptoms that can occur in both cases of influenza and covid-19. However, the treatments are different.
According to clinical pathologist Helio Magarinos, medical director of the Richet Medicina e Diagnosis (RJ) and regional president of the Brazilian Society of Clinical Pathology/Laboratory Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, the vast majority of influenza cases resolve themselves. On the other hand, Covid-19 should be monitored, as patients may experience relapses or very severe cases.
Only at a medical appointment it is difficult to differentiate between diseases. “It’s not very easy to make a clinical diagnosis alone, it needs tests that help a little more in making that distinction,” Magarinos says.
For infection specialist and consultant Helio Pacha of the Brazilian Society of Infection Medicine, it is important to ensure that all patients are at least tested for coronavirus. “It is important that testing for covid-19 is available to everyone,” he says. “that they [as doenças] They have a different clinical history over time, but the first symptoms are very similar, and it is not possible to differentiate between: body aches, malaise, fever, cold symptoms, rhinitis. In some cases, in Covid-19 we have a more serious development in the second week.”
In addition to specific tests aimed at identifying covid-19, laboratories are now introducing a new test, the covid multiplex, which uses RT-PCR technology to detect, as well as the SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for covid-19, influenza A and influenza B viruses. , which are the two main causes of influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus, also known by its acronym in English, RSV, which primarily infects children under the age of two. The test result is released within 48 hours and is performed on nasopharyngeal scrapes collected through the nostrils.
Cases not Brazil
Brazil is living with the COVID-19 pandemic and influenza pandemic in some states. The COVID-19 epidemic, which has slowed down in recent days, is still there. It’s still in danger, and we’re seeing what’s happening in other countries with the new variant. “We can’t relax,” Magarinos says.
The balance released by the Ministry of Health indicates that Brazil has more than 30 registered cases of the new variant of the coronavirus, micron. Micron infection multiplies rapidly in Europe, the United States (USA) and Asia. Therefore, many countries have resumed social distancing measures.
The increase in the number of influenza cases is a phenomenon that recurs year after year during the fall and winter seasons in each hemisphere. But in 2021, specialists were surprised by the epidemic that began in Rio de Janeiro in the middle of spring and showed signs that it had already reached other states in the middle of summer.
Care
To prevent both diseases, it is important to continue to take preventive measures against respiratory viruses, such as wearing a mask, avoiding crowds and closed environments, and cleaning your hands frequently. Another important point is not to leave the house with flu symptoms. “An epidemic does not spread alone. We are the ones transmitting,” said the director of the Brazilian Society for Immunization (SBIm), Flávia Bravo, in an interview with Agência Brasil.
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