High rises in lung and heart emergencies as a result of flu

Flu wave causes drastic increase in lung and cardiac emergency patients

The flu epidemic has Germany firmly under control. From week to week the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports new highs of new infections. According to the Hannover Medical School (MHH) this is also reflected in a drastic increase in lung and heart emergencies. Furthermore, the situation was very tense.

Since the beginning of the year, the flu infections have skyrocketed. "The number of patients who have been treated with flu symptoms since January has risen from week to week," according to the latest MHH announcement. To the same extent, the number of heart attack patients has increased during this period. Significantly more emergencies also occurred in chronic respiratory diseases and in severe pneumonia.

Because of the flu epidemic, significantly more lung and cardiac emergency patients in the hospitals must be treated at the moment. (Image: s_l / fotolia.com)

More patients were admitted with flu

At a press conference on the "Hannover Heart Lung Fair", Professor dr. Tobias Welte, director of the Department of Pulmonology at the MHH, on the effects of the flu epidemic. "In our Central Emergency Room, we have seen an increase of more than one-third in patients with influenza symptoms since the beginning of the year compared to the same period last year," said the pulmonologist. In the course of increasing influenza diseases, there has also been a dramatic "increase in worsening of obstructive airways diseases such as asthma or COPD, as well as severe pneumonia".

Already 92 heart attacks this year

Cardiac emergencies also show serious consequences of the flu epidemic. Thus, the numbers of patients with heart attack at the MHH in the first weeks of 2018 has risen sharply. Since the beginning of the year, 92 patients treated with a heart attack had to be treated there. Johann Bauersachs, Director of the Department of Cardiology and Angiology at the MHH. In months without flu, there were on average only 40 cases and "the number of severe cases with acute cardiac involvement has increased by 25 percent," said Professor. Bauernsachs.

The situation is tense

Professor Axel Haverich, director of the Department of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery at the MHH, confirms the increasing cardiac symptoms and emphasizes that since the beginning of the winter more and more patients had to be bypassed. "The situation is tense, also because we are increasingly being assigned patients from surrounding hospitals," says Professor Bauersachs. Thanks to innovative treatment methods, it is often possible to save their lives. For example, people who have failed breathing will be helped in the MHH with the innovative method of artificial respiration called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This procedure was already used four times more frequently in the first weeks of this year than in summer months.

The medical staff is increasingly ill

Also, according to the MHH, in addition to the flu epidemic, other viral infections are currently being diagnosed. Last but not least, this is shown by his own staff: "Even among our doctors and nursing staff, the number of sick leave has been significantly higher in recent months," emphasizes Professor Bauersachs. Because of the flu epidemic and the tense situation, it can currently be expected to wait for elective patients, the doctor continues. The hospital operation unfortunately can not be planned as the production in the industry.

What are the causes of the strong flu epidemic??

"The annually recurring virus epidemics, influenza or other pathogens, lead to a multiplication of diseases that burden the medical practices, but also the hospitals far beyond the normal level"; explains Prof. Bauersachs. Here, our health care system lacks the structures "to be able to respond to the temporary increase in patient numbers," according to the assessment of the physician. The experts suspect two main reasons for the particularly high numbers of infections: On the one hand, the willingness to vaccinate has declined significantly and, on the other hand, the most widespread pathogen strain is insufficiently covered for the second time in a row by the flu vaccine used. Currently circulating influenza B viruses in particular, which directly infect the heart and so can lead to serious heart muscle inflammation, explain the doctors. (Fp)