Immunologist Matilde Cañelles: “The current flu is different from previous years, and this year’s flu is more difficult to eliminate”

Matilde Cañelles López is an expert in molecular biology and immunology at the Superior Council for Scientific Research (CSIC).After outbreak of flu infections in Spain, researchers concerned database Talk about the peculiarities of this strain of the virus, which has seen a sharp rise in the number of people sick in recent weeks.

Author of this book vaccine He has spent recent years studying the immune response to covid-19, and he warned of the peculiarities of this flu ahead of the usual calendar, a reason that can be explained in part by the consequences it leaves behind. Coronavirus.

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Currently, the rate of flu patients in Spain is 438.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. This number has not stopped growing in recent weeks and is significantly higher than last year. It worsened during the Christmas period.

Q: What happened with the flu this year? The number of infections in Spain has been rising vertically for a month and a half.

Answer: There are many situations. The first is that the influenza came earlier this year, but we must also consider that this year’s influenza is not a typical influenza, but type A influenza. Influenza B is the most predictable form of influenza, has shorter onset and end times, spreads faster, and has less impact on people. Influenza A is a bit more complicated, usually lasts longer and sometimes comes back… As far as I know, this is the first time we’ve had influenza A since the pandemic.

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Q: What is the main difference between influenza A and influenza B?

A: They are two different strains, but generally speaking, influenza A is usually harder to eliminate and more likely to come back. When influenza A was prevalent, many patients did not recover for months and did not fully recover. With traditional influenza B, you stay in bed for a week without a recurrence.

Q: In recent years, influenza has not been taken seriously and most respiratory illnesses have been covid-19. Does it affect what’s happening now in any way?

A: The last flu epidemic, the flu epidemic of the past two years, was milder. It also falls within the range of normal flu fluctuations. They alternate, sometimes B first and then A, so a difference in severity is normal. Indeed, there was no influenza in the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, and many measures were not taken until the third year. Masks stopped the virus from spreading too much, and for the first time this year nothing was really done about it. I think this is normal, we are unfortunate, this year is influenza A and this is the first time we have not taken measures.

But others are drawing attention to another question, although it’s too early to see. Some believe covid-19 attacks the immune system, killing its cells, like AIDS. I don’t think so, and there’s still no evidence for it, but I do think that getting Covid-19 makes you susceptible to other diseases. It makes the most vulnerable people very vulnerable, and it makes people with stronger immune systems a little bit more vulnerable. We may now be seeing an overlap of these two things: we are facing influenza A, which is much more complex than influenza B, and experiencing COVID-19 again and again has weakened our immune systems even more. This may be why the flu arrives early.

Q: Do these theories have scientific evidence? After being infected with the coronavirus, many people subsequently develop other illnesses, which has become very common, especially with the omicron variant.

A: These theories are difficult to prove, and knowing whether the virus kills immune system cells is also difficult to prove. It’s very difficult to quantify whether colds after Covid-19 are worse than before, but there is a lot of evidence, and pediatricians are looking at this, that part of your immune system cells are affected after a child gets Covid-19.

It has not been proven that covid can directly attack the cells of the immune system, I don’t believe that, but what may happen is that since Sars-cov-2 is a virus that can enter all parts of your body, the immune system will not stop trying to eliminate the virus . Unlike other respiratory viruses, it enters your respiratory system and once you eliminate it, you are virus-free. Sars-cov-2 hangs around for a while in every corner, so the cells of your immune system disappear from the blood as they travel to those places to fight the virus that remains in your body. Although you have cells in these places that fight Sars-cov-2, they are not in your blood to protect you from other possible diseases.

Q: Is it possible that, after a few years against the background of influenza, the body reacts almost the same as when it was first exposed to the virus because the immune factors against the virus have been lost?

A: This is the famous debt immunity theory, which I totally disagree with. The fact that there have been so many infections this year has completely ruined it. If the immune debt theory is correct, there would have been more infections than necessary last year and fewer infections this year because we had immune memory from last year. Influenza A was circulating before the pandemic, so anyone who remembers it has had it, but the fact that influenza A has hit so hard this season doesn’t support the immunity debt theory at all.

Q: Association of Family Physicians Health centers asked to make masks compulsory again. Do you think enforcement is necessary? Or will applying common sense and advice from the Department of Health be enough?

A: In Spain these suggestions do not work. Just take the subway or bus and people will cough without wearing masks or anything. It is recommended that everyone wear a mask in medical centers during flu and cold periods, which is not a bad idea. Take the end of November to early February as an example. To me, this seems like something that can be set up without panic, and is designed simply to avoid infecting each other, especially with the most vulnerable in mind. If this is all that’s left of the pandemic, that would be very good news and it would significantly reduce infections.