Bald it’s that time again: from the beginning of October to mid-May, when it’s cool and life mostly takes place indoors, flu viruses circulate particularly frequently. The last influenza season in the corona pandemic has now almost failed to materialize. What does that mean? And should you get vaccinated against flu and corona at the same time?
What’s unusual about the flu this year?
For the first time in decades, the last flu season in Germany almost failed. With regard to typical respiratory infections, the Working Group Influenza (Time.news) speaks of a “previously never reached, low level in the winter months”. This was mainly due to the corona protective measures from wearing a mask to the long lockdown. According to the World Health Organization, this was a worldwide phenomenon. The rate of positively reported influenza samples fell to 0.2 percent between September 2020 and January 2021 – compared to 17 percent between 2017 and 2020 in the same period.
What does this mean for the flu vaccine for the upcoming season?
Data on the last circulating virus variants are the basis for how exactly the flu vaccine is composed for the coming season. Production usually starts in February – in order to have enough vaccine for autumn and winter. Since the last flu wave almost failed worldwide, the database on the pathogen types is now smaller.
Nevertheless, the WHO has no doubts about the effectiveness of the current vaccine. Even if there was influenza virus activity at a very low level, the organization announced on request. Global influenza activity will also remain low, according to WHO forecasts. Thomas Mertens, head of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), also considers worries about less protection to be unfounded. For Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the database is not nearly as good as in previous years. The effectiveness can therefore hardly be estimated, he said recently at a congress.
For whom does it make sense to get a flu vaccination?
In healthy children and adults under 60 years of age, influenza usually proceeds without serious complications. That is why there is no vaccination recommendation for them, but it is not advised against them. The Piks, on the other hand, can protect older people from severe flu courses through to fatal pneumonia.
According to the RKI, there is also increasing evidence that flu is a risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. The most favorable date for the vaccination is the period between October and mid-December, because a flu wave usually builds up at the beginning of the year. The Stiko generally recommends it to people aged 60 and over, most recently with a high-dose vaccine.
There are also recommendations for pregnant women and people with chronic diseases. According to Stiko, vaccinations should also be given if there is an increased occupational risk of infection, for example in the case of medical staff and in all facilities with a lot of public traffic. In addition, the vaccination recommendation applies to people who could infect risk groups, for example family carers.
Why should risk groups get vaccinated against flu, especially during the pandemic?
The groups that have to fear a severe course of the disease are very similar for influenza and Covid-19. There is even the possibility of becoming infected with both and thereby potentiating the severity of the disease. In the pandemic, a high influenza vaccination rate is useful for clinics in order to avoid bottlenecks in intensive care beds and ventilation places.
Can you get vaccinated against flu and Covid-19 at the same time?
Stiko boss Thomas Mertens recently saw no problem in an MDR interview. According to the RKI, there is not yet a general recommendation that a written statement from Stiko should follow in the course of September. The general practitioner association is open to a double vaccination.
There are two clear advantages for this, said Federal Chairman Ulrich Weigeldt of the German Press Agency. On the one hand, there is a risk that some patients will only perceive one of the two vaccinations because they do not want to appear for several vaccination appointments in a row. “In addition, avoiding an additional vaccination appointment would reduce the possible risk of infection,” he added.
However, individual practices handle it quite differently: The rule of one vaccination per day applies to them – and in the case of flu or corona protection, the next one only 14 days later.
How high are the flu vaccination rates in Germany?
In the risk groups, they have been too low for years and show a clear east-west divide – but very different from Corona: According to the RKI, only a third of senior citizens in western federal states were vaccinated in the 2019/20 season (34 .8 percent), in the eastern federal states it was more than half (57.1 percent).
The vaccination rate is highest for doctors at 79.3 percent, and in nursing it was 46.7 percent. In general, flu vaccines have not yet become scarce in Germany, but local bottlenecks are sometimes possible. More than 20 million cans are available each season.
How Much Effectiveness Is The Flu Vaccine?
This can be very different in the individual seasons, regardless of the corona pandemic. The composition of the vaccine is updated annually. It is still possible that in the following season influenza viruses did not match the virus strains contained in the vaccine so well, according to the RKI. The reason is, for example, that other strains prevailed during the production time of the vaccine. According to the RKI, a protective effect of up to 80 percent was observed in young adults with a very good match between the circulating influenza viruses and the vaccine. Depending on the season and development, the hit rate can also be significantly lower.
Older people often have a reduced immune response to the flu vaccine. Nevertheless, the vaccination could cut their risk of developing influenza by about half on average, according to the RKI. Due to the frequency of influenza in Germany, despite the modest vaccination rates, around 400,000 cases of flu among senior citizens have been prevented so far.
How many flu deaths are there each year in Germany?
This number can only be estimated. On the one hand, influenza tests are far from being used for every respiratory disease. Second, many people die of pneumonia as a complication after an influenza infection. Influenza viruses are then often no longer detectable. Therefore, the number of dead is calculated as the difference. It is obtained by subtracting the number of deaths that would have occurred without this wave from the number of all deaths during the influenza wave. The estimate result is referred to as “excess mortality”. The number of deaths in influenza waves in Germany can vary widely, from several hundred to over 20,000.
So far there have also been three flu pandemics, in which a completely “new” flu virus was circulating around the globe. In 1918/19, according to the RKI, 426,600 people died in what was then the German Reich. In 1957/58 there were an estimated 29,100 deaths in Germany, between 1968 and 1970 there were an estimated 46,900 deaths from the flu.
For comparison: In connection with the corona pandemic, around 92,800 people have died in Germany so far in absolute numbers.
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