Epidemiol Mikrobiol Imunol. 2021 Spring;70(1):68-71.
In times of COVID-19 pandemics, the upcoming period of the year when influenza activity usually increases in the Northern Hemisphere brings new medical and public health challenges. These challenges include the risk of mixed infections and/or a possible collision of the two epidemics (“twindemia”) with a potentially serious impact on individual health and public health. In this report, we discuss the results of the published stu-dies and conclude that the catastrophic collision of the seasonal influenza and COVID-19 epidemics is unlikely when efficient non-pharmaceutical public health measures are applied to control or mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic. This conclusion is supported by several lines of evidence, including the extremely low seasonal influenza activity registered in the Southern Hemisphere in 2020. On the other hand, the existence of mixed SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus infections has been demonstrated in humans. The continuing uncertainty about the occurrence and potential severity of these mixed infections emphasizes the importance of seasonal influenza vaccination in the current epidemiological situation and raises the need to: (i) ensure vaccine availability, (ii) facilitate access to safe seasonal influenza vaccination under the conditions of the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic, and (iii) promote the vaccine to the public.
在 COVID-19 大流行时期，北半球通常流感活动增加的一年即将到来，这带来了新的医疗和公共卫生挑战。这些挑战包括混合感染的风险和/或两种流行病（“双流行”）的可能碰撞，这可能对个人健康和公共卫生产生严重影响。在本报告中，我们讨论了已发表研究的结果，并得出结论，当应用有效的非药物公共卫生措施来控制或减轻 COVID-19 疫情的传播时，季节性流感和 COVID-19 疫情的灾难性碰撞不太可能发生。这一结论得到了几条证据的支持，包括 2020 年南半球极低的季节性流感活动。另一方面，已经在人类中证明了 SARS-CoV-2 和流感病毒的混合感染的存在。这些混合感染的发生和潜在严重程度的持续不确定性强调了在当前流行病学情况下季节性流感疫苗接种的重要性，并提出了以下需求：（i）确保疫苗供应，（ii）在 COVID-19 疫情持续的情况下，为安全接种季节性流感疫苗提供便利，（iii）向公众宣传疫苗。
