Influenza vs coronavirus: what are the similarities and what is more dangerous

Doctors and scientists still don't know much about the coronavirus and the COVID-19 disease it causes. To study the problem more deeply, experts are trying to rely on clinical data about another, much more well-known viral infection - the common flu. This is stated in the video "Voices of America".

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A common property of the two viruses, which can be seen almost immediately, is that the increased risk group in both cases includes people over 60 years of age, especially those with chronic diseases.

The main symptoms of both diseases are also common, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - most notably: fever, dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing.

Also common to influenza and coronavirus is the method of infection - airborne droplets. You can also become infected if you touch an item that has not been disinfected, if it was used by someone who is sick, and then you touch your nose, mouth, or eyes.

But there are many more differences between the two viruses than similarities. Firstly, the degree of infectivity - three patients with influenza infect on average four people. In the case of coronavirus, the same three patients infect 7-8 people, which makes it approximately 2 times more dangerous.

This increased risk is explained by the fact that it is easiest to become infected from a person with the flu 2-4 days after the onset of symptoms, and from a person infected with the coronavirus - even before their symptoms appear.

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For example, in China, such unsuspecting carriers of the virus caused 13 cases of infection. Another important factor is the need and duration of hospitalization. Although almost half a million people in the United States are hospitalized due to the flu, which corresponds to 2% of the total number of cases.

COVID-19 infection is 10 times more severe - it puts about 20% of those infected in a hospital bed. In addition, the average length of hospitalization, according to Chinese doctors, is 5-6 days for patients with influenza and 11 days for those infected with coronavirus.

As for mortality, in the United States, influenza is still the leader in the number of deaths - from 34 thousand people in the winter of 2019 to 68 thousand people in the winter of 2018. However, this is only 1/10 percent of the entire population. Coronavirus can kill 10 times more.

“Society is rightly afraid of the coronavirus, since getting infected with it is not the same as having the flu,” says Vladimir Ponomarev, a professor at the Sloan-Kettering Center. — The problem with coronavirus is that it affects the respiratory tract, goes deep down, and causes acute pneumonia, which is almost impossible to cope with. This is both because the pneumonia itself is very severe, and because we do not have the means, equipment or vaccine.”

“Unfortunately, coronavirus affects not only the lungs—the kidneys and other important organs and systems fail, so we must take this disease very seriously,” Ponomarev said.

In cases with both infections, standard measures are bed rest, rest and home care. However, doctors have a number of drugs and vaccines against conventional flu in service, and new methods appear annually. But the situation is different with COVID-19.

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“We are working on this with maximum speed and now we can already see that the vaccine that we inoculate in experimental animals produces antibodies that neutralize the virus. The amount of these antibodies can be measured in an infected person. This is our goal - to increase the response of the immune system. We have documented this in our experimental animals, and this is an important milestone towards creating a vaccine for humans,” said Gregory Glenn, head of research at Novavax.

Medicines and vaccines against coronavirus have not yet been tested and approved by medical authorities. Today, doctors in hospitals have to experiment with combinations of various drugs that have the potential to somehow slow down the development of a potentially dangerous ailment and speed up the patient’s recovery.

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