Infectious disease specialist Joost Wiersinga: “We expect a busy winter in the hospital”
With the arrival of autumn, positive corona tests are resurfacing left and right. Cause for concern this winter? Or has corona now become a strain of influenza? Internist-infectious disease specialist Joost Wiersinga says: “Right now, it is the rhinovirus that we are encountering most frequently in the emergency room, not corona.”
“We should not underestimate flu”, says infectious diseases professor Joost Wiersinga. “You can have a cold, but flu is influenza, and that’s what can make the elderly and people with chronic conditions very sick and land them in the hospital.” But SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has now been added to the list of respiratory viruses that hospitals must frequently deal with in the winter, including respiratory syncytial virus (RS virus), rhinovirus, and influenza (influenza virus), among others.
That cocktail of viruses causes crowding in hospitals every winter. In addition to the well-known bed shortage, a shortage of nurses has been added. Wiersinga: “For that reason, we expect it to be a busy winter in hospitals. Although nobody knows exactly how it will turn out.”
Wiersinga was therefore pleased with the Health Council's advice that people at increased risk of experiencing a severe course of the disease get a Covid-19 booster. “By doing so, you protect vulnerable patients and reduce the number of hospital beds required.”
Vaccinations for students
So why not also vaccinate students as a precautionary measure, as they are surely also major spreaders of corona? Not necessary, says Wiersinga. “The goal of the corona vaccination campaign in the Netherlands is to reduce serious illness or death, not to prevent the spread of the disease. Also, the omicron variant of the virus is less infectious than the delta variant or the original virus strain. The chances of contracting long covid from it have decreased, according to the latest U.S. studies.”
Should corona infections still get out of hand this winter, a roadmap is already ready at the Amsterdam UMC. “The roadmap was already there for corona, and we have had standard roadmaps prepared since the swine flu in 2009 for treating large groups of patients with the same infectious respiratory syndrome.” The number of corona infections is not yet out of control. Says Wiersinga: “Right now, the rhinovirus is the main cause of respiratory complaints in the emergency room, not corona. Corona ranks second, and influenza ranks third.”
