Coronavirus spreading flu awareness, doctors say
Is there an upside to the coronavirus, the respiratory virus that has sickened at least a dozen people in the United States and nearly 35,000 worldwide
Kind of.
“It’s making people a lot more aware of all different kinds of viruses — including the flu,” said Dr. Goran Miljkovic, an infectious disease physician at Bridgeport Hospital.
Other doctors echoed that statement, including Dr. Cornelius Ferreira, network director of primary care at Nuvance Health, which includes Danbury, New Milford and Norwalk hospitals, among others.
“People are much more aware of their risks, I think,” he said. “I have seen that more people are washing their hands, not touching their faces and getting their flu shots.”
Late last year, reports began surfacing about a new kind of respiratory virus identified in Wuhan, in the Hubei Province of China. Dubbed 2019 Novel Coronavirus, or 2019- nCoV, the illness was a new type of coronavirus — a large family of viruses that can cause everything from the common cold to such illnesses as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome.
Though the majority of novel coronavirus cases have been identified in China, there have been at least 12 in the United States, including one in Massachusetts. To date, no cases have been identified in Connecticut.
By contrast, as of the week ending Feb. 1, 6,404 people have tested positive for the flu in Connecticut and 32 people — including a child younger than 5 years old — have died from flu- associated illnesses. Nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reported that at least 19 million people have tested positive for flu this season.
Though doctors said they’ve seen many patients worried about their risks for coronavirus, some have also seen a spike in questions about illness in general, and the flu in particular.
Ferreira attributes that diversity of concern to news reports that have compared coronavirus with the flu, and have pointed out the flu is a bigger health risk for most people. The discussion could put an extra spotlight on the flu, which can be underestimated, he said.
“Because we’ve gotten used to the flu, we’ve become kind of blunted to it,” Ferreira said. “This brings it back into the conversation.”
Dr. Michael Parry, director of infectious disease at Stamford Hospital, said he’s also seen the profile of flu getting raised a bit during this latest disease panic.
“People are more concerned in general about hand- washing and are asking about whether they should wear a mask,” he said.
But despite more talk about the flu, Parry and others didn’t have any statistical evidence that coronavirus is actually leading more people to get the flu shot or take more precautions against the flu.
“There’s certainly more conversations, but whether they’ve actually led to more action — I don’t think so,” Parry said.
And others still said they’ve seen the current flu season get completely overshadowed by coronavirus craziness. Those include Dr. Steve Heffer, medical director of four American Family Care urgent care centers in Bridgeport, Faifield and Shelton. Heffer said the bulk of the patients that come through his clinics still seem more concerned about coronavirus than the flu, and it’s hard to change their minds about that.
“The flu is not in the forefront of people’s psyche right now,” he said. “Overall, I think they’re more concerned about the coronavirus.”
Heffer said he attributes the panic over coronavirus to the fact that “it’s unknown.” Because flu has been around awhile, he said, it can get lost in the shuffle.
“There is a lack of awareness of how damaging the plain flu can be,” he said.