2024-04-09 15:26:39
It is now known that a corona infection can have long-term consequences. A study shows that a flu infection also causes similar damage.
For years, the German public and especially science have been very concerned with one topic: Long Covid, the long-term consequences of a corona infection. According to estimates by the Long Covid Germany Initiative for those affected, at least ten percent of all infected people suffer from more or less severe long-term consequences of the disease. Between one and two percent, i.e. at least 500,000 people in Germany, suffer from a severe form of Long Covid.
But now that the number of acute corona cases is no longer as high as it was a few years ago, the focus is shifting back to other, well-known diseases. The flu is going around and the symptoms of the two infectious diseases differ. But do they differ in the long-term consequences? A new study wants to show that flu infections can also lead to serious long-term consequences, similar to a corona infection.
Long Covid: Does this also happen with flu?
In a long-term study, scientists at the US Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were able to find out that – contrary to what was previously assumed – a flu infection can also have long-term consequences, similar to a corona infection. The phenomenon is also called “Long Flu” based on Long Covid. The study will be published in the specialist magazine in December 2023 The Lancet been published.
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As the German pharmacist newspaper reported, the study showed that the long-term consequences of a flu infection are more serious than previously thought. To do this, the researchers Yan Xie, Taeyoung Choi and Ziyad Al-Aly examined the data of over 80,000 corona infected people who had to be hospitalized because of the Covid infection between 2020 and 2022 and over 10,000 flu infected people who were also hospitalized between 2015 and 2019 had to be.
After hospital discharge, the patients were observed for 18 months and long-term consequences were recorded, more specifically deaths, organ damage and the need for re-hospitalization. The patients were almost all men (95 percent), around 70 years old, mostly overweight, with previous health problems and in around 61 percent of all cases they were vaccinated against corona or flu.
Long Flu: How bad is the Long Covid of the flu?
The scientists found that Long Flu, similar to Long Covid, can have strong effects on the health of those infected. However, they also say that the effects of Long Covid are significantly stronger in all observed areas. The risk of death from a corona infection, for example, was significantly higher, more precisely: around 50 percent higher than from a flu infection.
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The mortality rate for Long Covid after 18 months in the observed patients was 28.46 per 100 people. During the same period, the death rate from a flu infection was 19.84 per 100 people. On average, 8.62 more people per 100 died with Long Covid than with Long Flu.
When it comes to organ damage, Long Covid also seems to cause more serious and, above all, more widespread damage than Long Flu. Contrary to what was previously assumed, severe damage to the lungs was observed with Long Flu, even more severe than that caused by Corona. The scientists also concluded that for both diseases, the long-term effects have a greater impact on health than the acute symptoms.
Finally, the study highlights the new observation of the long-term consequences of a flu infection. In particular, the heavy strain on the lungs, which was previously unknown, is a crucial innovation. Nevertheless, the study authors emphasize that Long Covid represents a greater health problem than Long Flu.
By the way: You also have to differentiate between the flu and the RS virus. The two diseases have different symptoms.
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