Flu is more deadly than expected
Larissa Melville completed her traineeship in the editorial team of . After studying biology at Ludwig Maximilians University and the Technical University of Munich, she first got to know digital media online at Focus and then decided to learn medical journalism from scratch.
More about the experts All content is checked by medical journalists.MunichA flu illness is no trivial matter. What is particularly feared are the secondary diseases to which it can open the door. And not without reason, impressively new figures prove that. Accordingly, the flu is responsible for far more deaths each year than expected.
Every year 5 to 20 percent of the German population get the flu - but how many deaths does it claim? To answer this question, scientists from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) have now examined the circumstances and consequences of influenza in Germany over the past 30 years - from 1984/85 to 2012/13.
29,900 flu deaths in a flu winter
During this period, many thousands of people died almost every year in Germany as a result of influenza. The flu winter 1995/96 claimed the most deaths with 29,900 deaths, closely followed by the flu winter 2012/13 with 23,600 deaths. In most cases, the influenza deaths were over 60 years old. But there were exceptions: in 2010/11, only 1000, but mostly younger Germans died from the swine flu pandemic. The analyzes also showed that in some years the flu viruses are particularly dangerous for old people, but not for the general population.
People who die from the flu often succumb to a secondary disease such as pneumonia. But the influenza viruses themselves can cause fatal complications such as lung, heart muscle or encephalitis. On the death certificate - and thus in the statistics - however, the cause of death is usually not taken into account as the flu itself, but rather the secondary illness. For this reason, the RKI investigation is based on so-called excess mortality. This is the number of recorded deaths during a flu epidemic, minus the average number of deaths during that time of year.
Is vaccinating an option?
For all people, but especially for the elderly, children, pregnant women and immunocompromised, there is the option of an annual flu vaccination. However, a recently published estimate by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) makes one sit up and take notice: The experts there suspect that seasonal influenza vaccination in the winter of 2014/15 protects only 23 percent of those vaccinated.
The researchers believe that the most likely explanation for the small effect is that the influenza virus that is currently wandering around the United States has developed differently than the vaccine manufacturers anticipated. Because every year researchers make predictions about the expected virus type. The vaccine for the coming year will be developed on this basis. However, if the virus changes faster or in a different way than expected, the vaccination will not be as effective.
Nevertheless, the CDC still recommends the flu vaccination, as it still protects around a fifth of those vaccinated and can also prevent serious complications. In addition, the vaccine could later protect against infections with other influenza viruses.
Whether with or without a vaccination - the flu can also be prevented by taking small measures in everyday life: for example, strengthening the immune system, with a vitamin-rich diet or alternating showers. Since the influenza viruses are usually transmitted by a droplet infection, it is also advisable to wash your hands regularly and not to touch the mucous membranes with your hands. Another tip that is not always feasible but effective is to avoid crowds and the sick.
Sources:
Epidemiological Bulletin. Robert Koch Institute (3/2015)
Brendan Flannery et al .: Early Estimates of Seasonal Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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