A virus is playing spoilsport at the start of the school year: “We are seeing more and more cases, it’s a surprise guest that we weren’t expecting”

“What is different today compared to the situation before the health crisisis that we always have respiratory viruses, in almost every season, whereas they were previously mainly concentrated during the winter period.reports DR Audrey Bonnelance, general practitioner in Brussels and administrator of the Belgian Group of General Practitioners. This year, there have been more viroses (a disease triggered by a virus and its spread in the body) than in previous years, especially in June-July and we still see quite a few today, there are also more gastroenteritis, but also covid which always comes back even if we cannot know at what level exactly given that we do more smears. And generally, we know that these viruses will circulate even more actively in the population within 3 to 4 weeks after the start of the school year“.

The other disease that has made a strong comeback in our country is not viral but of bacterial origin, it is whooping cough. A respiratory disease that is transmitted very easily, through the air, and which can be serious when it occurs in infants and fragile people. Since last winter, cases of whooping cough have multiplied in Wallonia, doctors are noting a resurgence of this highly contagious respiratory disease.

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At the European level, there is also a sharp increase. Nearly 60,000 cases of whooping cough have been reported in the countries of the European Union and the European Economic Area in 2023 and up to April 2024. This represents ten times more cases than in 2022 and 2021, according to data collected by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

“We saw very few of them before and recently, we’ve been seeing more and more of them, This is a surprise guest we weren’t expecting, says Dirk Devroey, general practitioner and professor at the VUB. This is why we also remind people that it is very important to think about vaccination, whether for whooping cough or measles, and therefore to follow your basic vaccination schedule. And we are indeed seeing more respiratory viruses this fall than in previous years, it must also be said that people are consulting more quickly than before. Other people are also waiting to return from vacation to get treatment because it is more expensive abroad and not always easy to find the right specialist. We are also seeing more urinary tract infections at the start of the school year because Belgians sometimes drink less water on vacation, so the risk is higher. More generally, there are also some who come to ask for a certificate to stay at home for a few days.

According to the latest wastewater monitoring report by Sciensano, it is Covid-19 that dominates the country’s epidemiological picture. While the JN1 variant is still the majority in our country, this new wave is still caused by sub-variants such as KP2 and KP3 that belong to the Omicron lineage and to this family of variants called “FLiRT”.

The reason? They have accumulated two additional mutations in the Spike protein compared to the previous variant (the one that caused the last wave last November), including at a place where antibodies connect. This makes it easier to evade our immunity, and that is probably why more people are getting sick, even though it is not considered an emergency.

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“Covid is circulating in a moderate manner and has slightly decreased compared to the peak in July, but it still causes a lot of contamination, indicates virologist Steven Van Gucht. On the other hand, there are no cases of monkeypox in our country yet. If people are sick at the moment, it is therefore largely because of Sars-cov-2. Moreover, we expect this to increase even more in the coming weeks, with the start of the school year and people returning from vacation, like last year when we saw a peak in October. Although the virus is now causing far fewer hospitalizations and aggressive forms are less common, it is nevertheless important to respect hygiene measures, particularly to protect the most vulnerable groups.”

In Belgium, a new vaccination campaign is planned for this purpose next autumn, particularly for those over 65, the chronically ill and people with immunodeficiencies.