How big are the current corona deaths compared to influenza deaths?

What are the similarities between their symptoms?

And what are the differences?

How many deaths from the current corona virus compared to the flu?

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed one million lives worldwide since January 2020, according to the World Health Organization.

In contrast, the World Health Organization estimates that between 290,000 and 650,000 people die from influenza-related causes each year worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins website.

The COVID-19 situation continues to change rapidly at times, and doctors and scientists are working to estimate the COVID-19 mortality rate, and at present it is believed to be much higher (perhaps 10 times or more) than most influenza strains.

What are the similarities between the symptoms of COVID-19 and influenza?

  • Both diseases can cause fever, cough, body aches, and sometimes vomiting and diarrhea (especially in children).

  • Both can lead to pneumonia.

  • Both influenza and COVID-19 can be asymptomatic, mild, severe, or even fatal.

  • People with coronavirus or the flu may not realize they are sick for several days, during which time they can inadvertently transmit the disease to others before they feel it.

Vaccines

Corona vaccines

There are many COVID-19 vaccines, and it is also important that you get a booster shot when you are eligible.

Influenza Vaccines

The influenza vaccine is available and effective in preventing some of the most dangerous types or to reduce the severity or duration of infection, and its vaccine is reformulated every year in anticipation of the strains expected to spread, and it is very important to obtain a vaccine against influenza as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

The differences

covid-19 cause

COVID-19 is caused by the 2019 coronavirus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, and there are different types of SARS-CoV-2 and they have some differences in their severity or transmissibility.

influenza cause

There are two main types of influenza viruses;

They are called influenza A and influenza B.

And different strains of them appear and spread every year.

What are the differences between the symptoms of COVID-19 and influenza?

COVID-19 can sometimes cause a person to suddenly lose their senses of smell and taste, and this is rare with influenza.

Complications of COVID-19

Complications, including long-term damage to the lungs, heart, kidneys, brain and other organs and a variety of symptoms, are possible after infection with COVID-19.

Influenza complications

Complications from the flu can include heart infection, encephalitis, or muscle inflammation, and multiple organ failure.

Secondary bacterial infections, especially pneumonia, can occur after a bout of influenza infection.

Passing a tragic stage

The Covid-19 pandemic has killed one million people worldwide since January 2020, according to the World Health Organization, which has called on governments to speed up vaccinations, while a third of the world's population remains without a vaccine.

"We have passed the tragic stage of the death of one million people with Covid-19 since the beginning of the year," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said - in a press conference last Thursday.

He called on the governments of all countries to redouble their efforts to vaccinate all health care workers, the elderly and other people most at risk, with the aim of immunizing 70% of the entire population.

In January this year, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and their partners established a partnership to provide the vaccine against COVID-19, which aims to facilitate the distribution of doses in 34 countries where the level of vaccination was less than 10%, all of which are located in Africa except for 6 of them.

Tedros noted that only 10 countries still have less than 10% vaccination rates.

"However, there is still a lot of work to do," he said.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization explained that one-third of the world's population remains unvaccinated, including two-thirds of health care workers and three-quarters of the elderly in low-income countries.