Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Oct 5: Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today urged authorities to make influenza testing kits available in Kashmir amid the COVID-19 pandemic which is still around.
In a statement issued here, DAK president, Dr Nisar ul Hassan said that the COVID and flu have similar symptoms and it is hard to diagnose which condition you have based on your symptoms alone “Testing is the only way to differentiate flu from Covid,” he said.
Dr Nisar said that we need to test for both flu and Covid to know which viral infection a person has so that he or she can receive timely and appropriate treatment. “Testing for both viruses will give public health officials important information on how flu and Covid is spreading and what preventive steps should be taken to reduce transmission rates,” he said.
He said that at the moment our labs have test kits for Covid only and don’t have kits for influenza. “Many patients who come to hospitals with febrile respiratory illnesses need to be tested for influenza, but due to non-availability of flu kits they end up getting misdiagnosed,” he said.
He said that with almost no flu in circulation over the last two seasons, there would be lower levels of natural immunity to the flu than usually seen. “This means we could have more flu cases this year,” he said.
He underlined that we can’t be complacent about flu which can alone cause a lot of trouble “and with Covid-19 still raging, two together can wreak havoc.”
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