BEIRUT (Xinhua) – Over the past three weeks, the flu virus has been spreading rapidly and intensely in Lebanon, where hundreds of infections have been recorded, mainly the children and the old.
Hospitals and clinics have been operating at full capacity for weeks. Some schools have closed the doors for fear of cross-infection among students.
Farid Abdallah, a member of the parents’ committee at a public school, told Xinhua that flu cases among students and teachers have been on the rise as a result of large gatherings and the absence of preventive measures and health monitoring.
Moussa Ibrahim, a disease surveillance officer at the Ministry of Health, told Xinhua that the quick spread of flu aggravated fears among citizens as it coincided with the increase in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths in the country, where more than 1,000 new cases are now reported on a daily basis.
Ibrahim noted that the simultaneous increase in the flu and COVID-19 cases makes it very difficult to deal with the infections given the pressure on Lebanon’s health system.
He warned that the failure to distinguish between influenza and COVID-19 may lead to dangerous cases of viral pneumonia and fatally secondary bacterial infections.
The Lebanese health official called for quicker vaccination against both influenza and COVID-19 and the adoption of precautions.
In some cases, Ibrahim said, the influenza is no less dangerous than COVID-19.
Raymond Awad, a Lebanese pediatrician, told Xinhua that the spread of flu is aggravated by the lack of corresponding vaccines, which are unavailable from most pharmacies and expected to arrive in Lebanon by the end of this month.
Lebanese health experts have been urging extra precautionary measures to avoid infection as medicine prices have increased remarkably following the government’s decision to stop its subsidy program in the light of the shortage of U.S. dollar reserves in the country.
Lebanon has been facing an unprecedented financial crisis caused by the shortage of the U.S. dollar and exacerbated by the outbreak of COVID-19 and last year’s Beirut port explosions that killed more than 200 and destroyed thousands of houses and businesses in the Lebanese capital.