Based on the influenza data from Australia, the U.S. may be heading for a severe 2022-23 cold and flu season.
Dire Predictions for the 2022-23 Cold and Flu Season
U.S. health officials are urging increased vigilance and action this cold and flu season due to the record-breaking pre-pandemic levels of influenza spreading across Australia.
According to WebMD;
It’s now winter in Australia, which is often a harbinger for the U.S. flu season.
That country is having a massive wave of flu cases that have eclipsed pre-pandemic rates. Since mid-April, the island nation’s weekly number of confirmed cases has exceeded its 5-year average.
At the same time, Aussie health officials report that COVID-19 cases are skyrocketing as Omicron variants (including the highly transmissible BA.5 strain) continue to spread across the country.
These troubling trends in the Southern Hemisphere – combined with falloffs in vaccination, masking, and social distancing in the U.S. – are raising fears that Americans may face a similar twindemic this fall and winter, with another major COVID-19 wave along with a bad flu season.
Is Australia's COVID, Flu ‘Twindemic’ A Warning for the U.S.?
Those warnings are especially concerning given the uptick in respiratory illnesses in the U.S. over the summer.
According to Baptist Health South Florida;
In normal, non-pandemic times, the flu season occurs in the fall and winter months, with outbreaks peaking between December and February. But this year, there’s a bit of a summer surge in the flu, partly blamed on most people letting down their guard – in terms of masking and social distancing – as the COVID-19 pandemic appears to ease.
Nonetheless, the summer of 2022 is seeing upticks in respiratory viruses, including mild cases of COVID-19 where symptoms could be mistaken for the flu or even a bad cold that doesn’t rise to the level of influenza.
While the cold and flu seasons have been notably mild over the last two years due mainly to precautions taken to prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the calls for concern are not unjustified.
In the U.S., on average, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza infections result in:
- 9M – 41M illnesses,
- 140,000 – 710,000 hospitalizations, and;
- 12,000 – 52,000 deaths.
The earlier the transmission starts, the longer the cold & flu season lasts, and the more damage the virus causes.
When combined with a significant decrease in pandemic-era social distancing and hotspot disinfection, an increase in travel, the emergence of HPAI in backyard flocks, and a new swine flu variant with a confirmed case of animal-to-human transmission, on top of an increase in COVID-variant transmission, we have a recipe for a significant healthcare crisis starting this winter.
Strategic Clean for Health Strategies During Cold & Flu Season
Several cleaning and disinfection strategies have proven highly effective at halting the transmission of influenza and other respiratory pathogens, including:
- The daily cleaning of occupied spaces in public facilities with a commercial-grade soap-based detergent applied with microfiber.
- Vacuuming with a commercial-grade HEPA-filtered canister vaccum.
- Disinfecting high-touch surfaces, including workspaces and break rooms, several times per day, and;
- Encouraging or enforcing (depending on the environment) high-outcome hand hygiene practices.
References & Resources
- Australia’s bad flu season is a warning for the U.S. this year
- CDC: The US 2021-2022 Influenza Season Was Mild and Driven by A(H3N2), a Strain Included in 2022-2023 Vaccines
- Disease Burden of Flu
- CDC Confirms First Human Infection with Flu Virus from Pigs During 2022
Takeaway
Predictions from health officials regarding the 2022-23 cold & flu season, based heavily on record-breaking outbreaks across Australia, appear dire.
Several influences contribute to public health concerns, including a substantial decline in enhanced cleaning and targeted disinfection strategies in public facilities.
Daily cleaning combined with targeted disinfection using microfiber and EPA-registered disinfectants and regular handwashing is the safest and most effective strategy for halting the spread of influenza.
Onboarding the requisite labor and material resources, particularly in the event of an ongoing community-wide outbreak, can be cost-prohibitive for many organizations.
Outsourcing is a proven method for onboarding highly in-demand cleaning and disinfection services and experience for a fraction of the price of maintaining a similar service in-house.
If you would like more information regarding the effectiveness of high-performance infection prevention and control measures, or if you would like to schedule a free, no-obligation on-site assessment of your facility's custodial needs, contact us today for a free quote!
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