Winter illnesses: How to stay healthy this flu and COVID season

Winter weather may have arrived late this year, but winter diseases have been plaguing Israel for several months already, with concerning results. The hospitals are full to capacity, the wait in the emergency room sometimes takes as long as 15 hours, and many patients in at-risk groups have been admitted to intensive care units.

In recent weeks, there has been a moderate decrease in the incidence of COVID, but other winter diseases are still very active: the data from the Health Ministry indicates a five-year high in the incidence of the flu. The hospitals and health insurance clinics are also overloaded with inquiries due to bacterial lung infections.

Winter diseases often spread due to people staying indoors in closed spaces that are not sufficiently ventilated. Some of the most prominent winter diseases afflicting us are: Colds, bronchiolitis, flu, and COVID, as well as bacterial pneumonia.

There are no antibiotics against viruses, and the treatment focuses on medical supervision, relieving symptoms as they appear, reducing fever and drinking a lot, and above all – protecting the immune system: Vaccines against the flu and COVID provide very good protection against severe illness, and are especially important for anyone at risk such as babies, pregnant women, the elderly, and the sick who suffer from immunosuppression.

The treatment against the pneumococcal bacterium, which often causes severe pneumonia, is antibiotics. The symptoms of pneumonia often include fever, cough, and vomiting, and inflammation of the lungs that can be detected via a chest x-ray or ultrasound test.

My recommendations:

1. Be sure to get vaccinated every year against flu and COVID. Infants and those 65 and older, or immunosuppressed individuals, should also receive the pneumococcal vaccine once every five years.
2. If you are already sick, maintain hygiene, cough into your elbow, ventilate your home, use a mask when you are in public, and avoid going to school or work.
3. These are the red flags: in case of fever for more than three days, vomiting more than three times a day, not urinating for more than 10 hours, rapid breathing (over 20 breaths per minute in an adult, over 40 in a child and over 50 in a baby), or inability to complete a complete a sentence, seek immediate medical attention.

Busting myths

Who hasn't heard a mother or grandmother telling you to dress well, so you don't catch a cold.

This saying is passed down from generation to generation, but are bacteria and viruses really affected by temperature?

Well – cold and rain do not cause colds or the flu. Colds also do not weaken the immune system. In countries in the Northern Hemisphere as in the Scandinavian countries, the incidence rate of influenza and other winter diseases is not higher, despite the intense cold.

And what about COVID?

Even COVID cases in recent years sometimes peaked precisely in the summer season. Why, then, are colds more common in winter? Because of the seasonality of the viruses' activity, and mainly because of people spending time in closed rooms, the lack of ventilation, and increased proximity to one other – which increases the transmission of viruses from person to person.

Health tip

In addition to a first aid kit, I usually recommend to my patients to equip themselves with basic medical equipment that can provide them with a lot of information about their medical condition.

Especially in the winter, you should have a thermometer at home, a blood pressure monitoring device, and a saturation meter that checks the pulse and blood oxygen levels. It is also worth getting rapid test kits for streptococcus, COVID, and the flu, which can be obtained at any pharmacy chain, as well as an inhaler to relieve shortness of breath and cough symptoms.