Christmas is upon us, but this year we risk finding an unwanted guest under the tree: the so-called “Variant K”a flu that arrived early and was capable of spreading very quickly. Between the boom in infections and the last-minute scramble for shelter, we’re trying to understand how to make family celebrations safe. We talk about it with the Professor Gloria Taliani, professor of infectious and tropical diseases at La Sapienza University of Rome.
Let’s talk about “Variant K”: the data tells us that it is the most prevalent in Italy and is very contagious. Can you explain to us what’s happening? Why is the virus spreading so much this year compared to the past?
«In reality the influenza virus has always been present. It has always been characterized by the extraordinary ability to modify its genetic and therefore also protein structure. It is its specific figure and is the reason why the vaccine strains must be renewed every year: immunity cannot be based on the previous year’s vaccination. Every year, through the vaccine, we confer a new immunological competence on people, allowing them to build a sort of immune “library” and extend the response to potential new viruses. However, the next virus will always have some element of diversity linked to its own biology.”
Precisely based on these mutations dictated by seasonality, does the vaccine still work? Is it important to do this anyway?
«Absolutely yes. Even if the new variant partially escapes coverage, the antigenic structure remains with a common basis towards which antibodies are produced. These antibodies may not completely prevent the new variant, but they muffle it and reduce the possibility of replication. The vaccine, even if not perfectly suited to the new variant, confers an impeding effect on the spread and this translates clinically into a modulation of the symptoms and a shortening of the duration of the infection. Vaccine profiling is based on the dominant variant that circulates in the opposite hemisphere in the summer. If a new variant such as “K” emerges, that basic structure still allows the immune response to be modulated in a favorable manner and the clinical impact to be mitigated.”
We are practically under the Christmas holidays. Many people think: “It’s too late now, I’ll postpone it until next year.” Is this a fair reasoning?
«There’s no point in putting it off. As maestro Manzi said: “It’s never too late”. Protection occurs within a few days, so there is an expected benefit in any case. Furthermore, if by hypothesis we become infected after having had the vaccination, there will still be an immune boost which allows us to shorten the duration of the disease. There is also no contraindication if you have already had a flu-like syndrome. No one guarantees that those symptoms were due to the real flu: there are a large number of different viruses circulating that give overlapping manifestations. Having had a fever and cough before does not exclude that the vaccine can prevent the actual flu episode.”
And what about the most at-risk categories, such as the elderly and children, especially in view of family reunions?
«Those who are against the vaccine will build their immune repertoire through progressive diseases, getting sick every year. But be careful: growing old means becoming fragile. The erosion of health exposes us to all the risks that the virus poses, making the elderly particularly exposed to the severity of the disease. On the other end of the spectrum there is the young child, who has not yet acquired this immune experience: he must be vaccinated because it is the only effective way to enhance his response to exposure to present and future viruses.”
A warning that unfortunately finds confirmation in the news of these hours. In fact, from Campania there are reports of departments under pressure and rapidly increasing hospitalizations, a practical demonstration of how the virus, finding a population “tired” of vaccinating itself, manages to cause serious complications that require hospitalization.
We still see people wearing masks on public transport. Is this a good habit to maintain? How much does it really help?
«The Covid experience has left us with expertise in managing masks, but we must remember the difference between “defensive” and “protective” masks. Surgical masks are protective towards others: if I have a cold and I wear it, I am doing an act of respect because I prevent my droplets from reaching the neighbours. But if I’m afraid of getting infected, surgery is useless. To protect ourselves we need defensive masks, the famous FFP2. If we want to be guaranteed in both senses, we use FFP2 and don’t talk about it anymore.”
If we get infected, is there a way to distinguish this flu from Covid based on the symptoms or is a swab necessarily necessary?
«The only way is to diagnose the presence of the virus through a swab. But in daily life it is not really necessary to know if you have been infected by the influenza virus, parainfluenza, syncytial virus or Covid. In ordinary conditions, in fact, the administration of specific antiviral drugs is not indicated. Achieving this diagnostic finesse has no added value for home care; obviously it has some in serious hospital cases, but there the clinical urgency is different.”
