Covid-19 and flu: This disease is currently more often fatal

Virus flu and coronavirus infection show certain similarities.

New figures show that the percentage of infected people who die is very similar.

• A coronavirus infection can be fatal - just like the virus flu *.

• However, there are differences depending on the disease - not only with regard to the risk groups.

• The virus flu kills countless times every year - far more than a coronavirus infection?

Update from October 12, 2020

: The comparison is always in the room: Corona or flu - which is more dangerous?

In 2017/2018 around 25,100 people died from flu in Germany alone.

This is the highest number of deaths in the past 30 years, as the Ärzteblatt Lothar Wieler, President of the RKI, quotes.

But there are also harmless flu waves: During the 2019/2020 flu season from October 2019 to April 2020, 377 deaths from influenza infections were reported to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

As the editorial network Germany informs,

.

According to the network for evidence-based medicine, the proportion of those verifiably infected with the coronavirus who die is currently between 0.1 and 0.4 percent in Germany.

However, the number of unrecognized and symptom-free cases and false positive tests are not yet taken into account.

Of the 327,919 reported Covid 19 infections in Germany, 277,039 people are considered healthy again.

9,627 people died as a result of the infection, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.

However, it cannot be said exactly

, according to the editorial network Germany.

Corona: "We are all in a crisis that is of an extent that I could never have imagined myself"

Update April 10, 2020:

 The

is in Germany, according to

an illness of unprecedented dimensions is "We are all in a crisis that has a level that I had myself never imagined." , warned RKI President Lothar Wieler on Friday (March 20, 2020) in Berlin when he assessed the situation in front of journalists.

The seriousness of the situation must now be completely clear to all citizens and decision-makers.

"Everyone has to understand that."

The RKI boss warned again against comparing the danger of Corona with that of the flu.

The

is also dangerous, but the so-called disease burden of the new pathogen is much higher.

transmitted much more easily and leads to much more severe courses and deaths, especially in the risk groups *.

It is to be feared that the

not be sufficient.

Everyone must "open their eyes to this reality".

Influenza and Covid-19 in comparison: Up to five million severe flu cases annually

Initial report:

After the first confirmed coronavirus cases in Bavaria *, Federal Health Minister Spahn said in the Tagesschau that you were well prepared.

He would make the reporting chains even closer and want to impose additional reporting obligations on airlines and clinics, said Spahn in an interview.

In the meantime, 132,210 confirmed coronavirus infections in Germany and 3,495 deaths have forced the federal government to take more drastic measures and set up a crisis team. 

Many citizens are concerned about new cases of SARS-like lung disease caused by new types of coronavirus *.

.

493,658 people are already healthy again.

For comparison: According to the World Health Organization (WHO) there are three to five million serious cases of flu every year.

Of these, up to 650,000 people die of the virus disease.

Also read:

Novel coronavirus: Human immune system not prepared for it

But there is a flu vaccination that protects against influenza * - a vaccination against the new pathogen Sars-CoV-2 is not yet on the market.

"Although there are already a number of clinical tests of drugs in China and vaccines against Covid-19 are being developed,

", Spiegel quoted the World Health Organization as saying.

In the case of influenza, however, there are both protective vaccinations and approved antiviral drugs.

The fact that our immune system is not prepared for the new type of coronavirus also increases the risk of serious disease progression, which in risk groups * can even lead to death.

Coronavirus infections and flu - further differences at a glance

:

• According to current knowledge, Covid-19 is more often life-threatening than the flu

  .

  16 percent of coronavirus infections are so severe that patients need additional oxygen.

  Around five percent of those affected even need artificial respiration.

  The death rate in the case of Corona is also said to be higher than in the normal flu wave.

  However, this assessment can be classified as preliminary, too many variables about the coronavirus are still unknown.

• Coronaviruses appear to be more contagious than the flu pathogen

  .

  Here, too, doctors cannot yet give a final assessment because too little is known about the novel virus.

• Covid-19 has a longer incubation period than the flu

  .

  If infected with coronaviruses *, it should take up to 14 days for those affected to show the first symptoms.

  If you have the flu, it is usually two to three days. 

• According to the current state of knowledge, children and pregnant women are not among the Covid 19 risk groups

  .

  In the case of influenza, on the other hand, they belong to those patients in whom the disease can develop into a severe disease.

Read more

:

.

In the video: Flu or Corona Virus - Which is worse?

Coronavirus infection has so far mainly resulted in death in people with serious previous illnesses

.

The risk groups * include:

• People with heart disease 

• Cancer patients

• elderly

• immunocompromised people (e.g. due to autoimmune diseases)

Also read

:

.

So far, no drug against the coronavirus has been found

The situation is similar with the virus flu

.

Here, too, young, healthy people are far less at risk than older people with previous illnesses or immunodeficiency, said Kräusslich.

As with a flu infection, there is still no drug * that works against the virus for an infection with coronaviruses.

However, symptoms such as respiratory infections or difficulty coughing can be treated. 

.

"You wait for the body's immune system to deal with the pathogen in question," says virologist Kräusslich.

Survey on the subject

More on the topic

: First coronavirus patient in Munich on isolation ward.

Read more

: Coronavirus: What are the Symptoms?

Lung disease is spreading.

The next deadly virus is rampant in China: seven people have already died.

Frankfurt

: The tourism industry in Frankfurt is clearly feeling the effects of the coronavirus *.

Hotels and trade fairs in particular are affected by the declining tourism from China.

However, there is no cause for concern.

(jg) * Merkur.de and fnp.de belong to the Germany-wide Ippen-Digital editorial network

More sources: https://influenza.rki.de/Wochenberichte.aspx

These viruses and bacteria make us sick

These viruses and bacteria make us sick