Flu Epidemic Rising With 10 Severe Flu Cases, a Death 流感疫情升溫 增10例重症.1例死亡個案

While COVID-19 epidemic slows down, the number of flu cases gradually grows. The Centers for Disease Control reported 10 new severe flu cases and one death.

As the COVID-19 epidemic continues to slow down, Taiwan reported over 20,000 new domestic cases on Feb. 7, representing a four-day drop consecutively. Public health specialists noted that Taiwan's population immunity, including that from natural infection, vaccines, and herd immunity, is at around 55 percent. Based on the experiences of Australia and Korea, even with total relaxation of disease prevention restrictions, medium to severe cases will not increase drastically. They recommend practicing meticulous self-prevention to achieve the next level of relaxation of COVID restrictions.

Chen Hisu-hsi, Professor, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University: “If those who are likely to be in touch with vulnerable groups all get bivalent vaccines, then we can expect group immunity to reach 70 percent. Then Covid alert level may be lowered and restrictions relaxed.”

However, the flu epidemic begins to heighten. The CDC announced that there were more than 47,000 patients with influenza-like symptoms checking in at hospitals last week, an increase of 28 percent from the previous week. Among these, severe flu cases increased by 10 cases, with the youngest patient being an 8-year-old boy, who is currently being treated in ICU. Additionally, a 90-some-year-old woman is the 5th death case since the beginning of the flu season.

Lo Yi-chun, Deputy Director-General, Centers for Disease Control: “During her treatment in the hospital, she was diagnosed with Influenza-A; however, she also suffers from other chronic illnesses, stroke and kidney failure, and breathing failure, and thus passed away on Feb. 2.”

In addition, the latest research compiled by Chung Shan Medical University Hospital and Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital discovered that those who contracted COVID-19 have three times the risk of developing autoimmune diseases as those who were never infected with COVID-19. With respect to this, the CECC responded that a few people may experience stimulation of immune reactions after contracting COVID-19 and resulting in a cytokine storm, but this requires further empirical evidence.

新冠疫情持續降溫，7日週二新增2萬多例本土病例，已連續4天病例數下降。有公衛專家表示，台灣目前受自然感染及疫苗保護，群體免疫保護力約為55%。若以澳洲及韓國經驗來看，即使防疫全面鬆綁，中重症也不會增加太快。建議台灣可利用精準自主防疫，達到降級解封。

台大公衛學院教授陳秀熙指出：「接觸脆弱族群的人，可能你打雙價疫苗，就可以預期達到群體免疫70%，這時候當然就可以做降級解封。」

新冠疫情降溫，流感疫情卻開始升溫。疾管署公布，上週門急診類流感就診人次達4.7萬多人次，較前一週增加2成8。其中流感重症新增10例，年齡最小的是8歲男童，還在加護病房治療；另外新增一名死亡個案為90多歲女性，是本流感季以來第5位流感重症死亡個案。

疾管署副署長羅一鈞表示：「後續住院當中，採檢出來是A型流感。不過仍然因為她本身一些慢性病，還有腦中風、腎衰竭、呼吸衰竭等等，在2月2日過世。」

此外，中山大學附設醫院及高雄榮總團隊合作，最新研究發現感染新冠會增加罹患自體免疫疾病，風險是未感染者的3倍。對此，疫情指揮中心回應表示，少部分人可能感染後激活免疫反應，產生細胞激素風暴，但還需更多實證。