Walter Finch
Colds and the flu are spreading like wildfire through Malaga as the citizens prepare to welcome in the new year.
Primary healthcare and emergency care centres have been seeing a significant increase in respiratory infections caused by the viruses.
Cases of colds and flu have shot up in December and emergency care centres are receiving up to 400 patients daily, El Diario Sur report.
This increase in patients in emergency care is also due to the fact that healthcare centres were closed for three consecutive days over the Christmas holidays.
With fewer doctors available during regular consultation hours, people are turning to emergency care.
As a result, primary care emergency care centres were reinforced with doctors and nurses over the weekend due to an increase in patients, according to healthcare sources, who said that they want to supplement emergency care with more doctors and nursing staff by the end of the year and the beginning of 2023.
The symptoms of these respiratory conditions start with a sore throat and mucus. Fever then appears, with high temperatures between 38 and 39 degrees lasting between 24 to 48 hours.
It then goes down a little, and by the fifth day, patients are usually asymptomatic, according to medical sources
But they stressed that they are seeing hardly any complications from these colds and flu, both in normal doctor’s clinics and in emergency care centres.
The increase in respiratory infections has been put down to several factors, including the fact that the population has stopped wearing masks.
On top of that, people are gathering together with friends and family in enclosed spaces for the festive season.
Usually alternating paracetamol and ibuprofen and drinking a lot of water is sufficient to combat the illness, but in cases where there is a high fever, doctors may also prescribe antibiotics.
If you find yourself coming down with the flu, doctors recommend to drink fluids and avoid contact with others to prevent the spread of the virus.
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