Flu morbidity to be quite high in upcoming epidemic season - Russia's Research Institute of Influenza

NOVOSIBIRSK. Sept 12 (Interfax) - The cold and flu situation is back to what it was before the coronavirus pandemic, so flu morbidity could be quite high in the upcoming epidemic season, Director of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Influenza Dmitry Lioznov said.

"We are going back to the pre-pandemic situation where a great number of [acute respiratory viral infection] ARVI pathogens circulated in different seasons. Now, we definitely expect to see the flu in the autumn-winter season, it has returned, and we expect a fairly high incidence rate during the rise in infections, during the epidemic," Lioznov told Interfax on the sidelines of a conference in Novosibirsk dedicated to the 120th anniversary of Novosibirsk Infectious Disease Clinical Hospital No. 1.

Other viruses, such as rhinoviruses, respiratory syncytial, metapneumovirus, etc., also remain in circulation, he said.

"This is the traditional thing we know about and can identify by available methods," Lioznov said.

Hence, vaccination and at-risk group monitoring remain relevant, he said.

In particular, it is necessary to strive for 100% vaccination of at-risk groups against all diseases that can be prevented with vaccines, Lioznov said.

Flu type H1N1, or swine flu, is expected to circulate in the upcoming epidemic season, as it did in 2022, alongside flu type B, he said. Flu type H3N2 strain was predominant in 2023.

Covid-19 has taken its place among respiratory infections, and a rise in Covid-19 cases is expected in addition to cold and flu, Lioznov said.

"It is becoming a common infection for us, yet we still need to determine its seasonality. Importantly, it is circulating quite actively. We see that, nevertheless, despite the increase in the incidence rate, which is generally associated with the increase in morbidity of respiratory infections, it has lost the implications we observed during the pandemic," he said.