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Covid-19: what if the cold season ... delayed the second wave

2020-09-29T11:14:39.659Z


While autumn generally signals the arrival of many viral infections, researchers are wondering about the effects of their coexi


A runny nose, a slightly red throat or even a slight migraine: faced with Covid-19, our best ally could be… a good old cold.

At least this is the hope that some researchers share, lip service, in favor of autumn.

The season, which started last week, has a habit of carrying viral infections like dead leaves, starting with the flu and gastroenteritis.

If we are to believe what is still only a very optimistic theory, these attacks could compete with the new coronavirus.

To the point, perhaps, of reducing or delaying the famous “second wave”.

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“Traditionally, we notice that viruses follow each other throughout the year rather than coexist, notes Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine).

Is this coronavirus going to freeze in a place within this calendar or be superimposed on it?

This is the whole point.

"

An infectious disease specialist and hygienist at the Strasbourg University Hospital Center (Bas-Rhin), Stéphane Gayet evokes a “plausible” hypothesis.

“At the individual level, immune interference was first observed with measles,” he explains.

It was found that affected children did not contract other viruses.

"

Immune system on alert

Concretely, once the immune system is stimulated, the body tends to become impermeable to other viruses for a few weeks.

This is particularly the case for those transmitted in the same mode or by the same routes: in this case, a respiratory infection, such as a par influenza infection, tends to protect against other infections of the same type.

So, potentially, from Covid-19.

“This is how we explain that young children, up to 10 years old, seem resistant to Covid-19, adds Stéphane Gayet.

Not yet immune, they follow a series of viral infections: from the age of two, their immune system is permanently on the bridge!

"

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Some doctors go so far as to point out that it is extremely rare to get both the flu and, for example, gastroenteritis.

Hence the possibility that one temporarily excludes the other, despite different modes of transmission.

In this case, these immune mechanisms, which rely at the cellular level on the action of proteins called interferons, are still relatively poorly understood.

Society-wide, could the cold season delay the next peak of the epidemic by a few months?

Only the next few weeks will be able to answer it.

Especially since autumn brings about a series of environmental changes that are a priori favorable to the coronavirus, such as lower temperatures and shorter days.

" Careful "

"Not frankly of the alarmist type" vis-à-vis the second wave, Thierry Prazuck, head of the infectious diseases department of the regional hospital of Orléans (Loiret), is "extremely cautious".

"The bronchiolitis virus occurs almost at the same time as the flu epidemic," he objected.

The H1N1 of the flu coexists with the H3N2 and the B virus of the flu, while they give the same symptoms… "

Same reluctance with Jean-Daniel Lelièvre, head of the infectious disease department at Mondor hospital, in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).

“Before this year, we had hardly ever followed a virus as precisely as the coronavirus,” he recalls.

If we had done so, we might have discovered many more cases, particularly asymptomatic, throughout the year ”.

Including, therefore, in a period of coexistence with other viruses.

Source: leparis

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