A jab in time: On India and vaccination against flu.
India must push for vaccination against the flu for the elderly.
With recent reports indicating a rise in the seasonal influenza cases in the Delhi-NCR area, it is once again time to issue a cautionary note and make a renewed effort to push adult vaccination in the country. The predominant strains involved this season are Influenza A and Influenza B, many treating physicians and pulmonologists have reported. Influenza, with the moniker flu, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by viruses. While it is routinely conflated with the common cold, since the symptoms present similarly — sudden cough and sore throat, with high fever, accompanied by muscle pain, body aches, headaches, fatigue and stuffy nose — it is not quite the same. Both are caused by different viruses and can have varying symptoms and severity. The flu causes mild to serious illness, requiring hospitalisation sometimes, and in a few cases, mostly coinciding with a delay in hospitalisation, can even lead to death. In India, there are two peaks of seasonal influenza, one from January to March and the other in the latter part of the southwest monsoon, in August-October. India has developed a near real time surveillance of cases of Influenza like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) presenting themselves in health facilities. This programme was further strengthened and made more robust during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. There is also real time surveillance through the country-wide network of diagnostic laboratories. Epidemiologists say influenza surveillance is a key tool to keep tabs on circulating strains, and define seasonality, besides, playing an important role in syncing vaccination with relevant circulating strains. With all this information in place, it is highly unlikely that health managers will miss any seasonal uptick of cases.
However, the task at hand for governments is a little more complex — it is about being prepared to handle the outbreak by anticipating it and inculcating a sense of preservation, particularly among the high-risk groups ranging on the extremes of the age spectrum. Attention should be paid to children, senior citizens and people with chronic respiratory conditions. Key among the interventions recommended is increasing awareness on vaccination for influenza; in fact, people of all ages will benefit from a periodic shot of the updated flu vaccine. While vaccination for children is, by and large, acceptable, and an area of focus for all health managers, adult immunisation gets the short shrift. At the moment, it is left to the whims and resources of State governments to offer adult vaccinations. Targeted awareness campaigns must be clear, urgent in tone, and make an impact on the high-risk groups particularly, because, very simply, vaccines save lives.