Doctors yesterday urged people in high-risk groups to take preventive measures and get vaccinated against influenza, while people 65 or older should consider getting an adjuvanted flu vaccine, amid a longer-than-typical flu season.
The Lee CY’s Research Foundation for Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Vaccines said that since the mask mandate was mostly lifted in April, flu infections have gradually increased, with more than 300 severe flu complication cases reported in the past six months, adding that the peak season was delayed until spring and summer.
National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital superintendent Huang Li-min (黃立民) said that in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 had an advantage over other viruses when competing for uninfected cells in the upper respiratory tract, leading to fewer people getting the flu.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
However, after the lifting of three years of pandemic restrictions, more people are getting the flu or other respiratory tract infections.
The peak flu season came earlier in the US and Australia last year, but in Taiwan — where the flu season is usually in autumn and winter, and plateaus in winter — the peak season has been delayed, meaning that people are at risk of flu infections all year, and the situation might continue for two to three years.
People at higher risk of developing severe flu complications — people 65 or older, children and those with chronic medical conditions — should especially take precautionary measures throughout the year and get the seasonal flu vaccination in autumn to prevent infection, Huang said.
Chan Ding-cheng (詹鼎正), director of National Taiwan University Hospital’s Department of Geriatrics and Gerontology, said that among the severe flu complications reported this flu season, about half were in people aged 65 or older, and 87 percent did not get vaccinated.
The risk of developing severe illness in people older than 65 is about sevenfold greater than for those aged 25 to 49, and the fatality rate among people 65 or older with severe flu is 11 times greater than for people aged 25 to 49, he said.
However, only 45.8 percent of people aged 65 or older have received a government-funded flu vaccine, he added.
Moreover, due to immunosenescence — which is the progressive deterioration of the immune system with increasing age — people 65 or older might have weaker (about 50 percent protection) and shorter (effects lasting only about five months) responses to vaccination than younger adults, he said.
Huang said that in the UK and some other countries, people aged 65 or older have the option to receive an adjuvanted flu vaccine, which promotes a better immune response (by about 20 to 30 percent) and might extend the effect for as long as one year.
If it is introduced in Taiwan this year, people aged 65 or older should consider getting the pay-out-of-pocket adjuvanted flu vaccine too, he said.
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