Department of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, Shenzhen, China.
Centre of Environment and Population Health, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia.
Biosci Trends. 2022 Nov 20;16(5):374-376. doi: 10.5582/bst.2022.01297. Epub 2022 Jul 17.
COVID-19 has been a topic of interest since a pandemic struck in 2019. The morbidity of influenza tended to decrease due to the measures to prevent COVID-19. Indeed, influenza seems to be "ignored" in this era of COVID-19. However, influenza has not disappeared from the scene. Presented here are two examples of recent influenza epidemics in China and Australia. Possible interactions between COVID-19 and influenza are discussed. Measures against COVID-19 may reduce contact with influenza, subsequently reducing adaptive immunity against influenza in the general population. Influenza might not be center stage right now, but insufficient adaptive immunity in the population may potentially trigger a future influenza pandemic. Coinfection with COVID-19 and influenza might potentially be a thorny problem. Hence, influenza cannot be ignored. Governments around the world should take measures to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic in the future.
自 2019 年大流行以来，COVID-19 一直是人们关注的话题。由于预防 COVID-19 的措施，流感的发病率趋于下降。事实上，在 COVID-19 时代，流感似乎被“忽视”了。然而，流感并没有从现场消失。本文介绍了中国和澳大利亚最近发生的两起流感疫情。讨论了 COVID-19 和流感之间可能存在的相互作用。针对 COVID-19 的措施可能会减少与流感的接触，从而降低普通人群对流感的适应性免疫。流感现在可能不是主角，但人群中适应性免疫不足可能会引发未来的流感大流行。COVID-19 和流感的合并感染可能是一个棘手的问题。因此，不能忽视流感。世界各国政府应采取措施，为未来可能发生的流感大流行做好准备。
