European health experts predict a worsening of the epidemiological situation after the summer. Epidemiologists in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) agree with this but hope that the clinical picture of the patients will be much milder than during the pandemic. If a new, more dangerous strain appears, they say that health institutions in BiH are ready for that scenario as well.
The head of the Clinic for Lung Diseases at the Dr. Abdulah Nakas General Hospital in Sarajevo, Ednan Drljevic, expects that if the number of patients increases in the fall, they will be hospitalized with a milder clinical picture, as is the case now. They say that the reduction in the number of people infected with the COVID-19 was also due to the good weather, ventilation of the premises, and staying outdoors, which is not conducive to the transmission of the virus.
”In autumn-winter period all possible respiratory infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract increase significantly, so we can expect COVID-19 cases to increase in autumn, but if it remains in this form it will not be too much of a problem,”Drljevic explained.
Due to numerous unknowns related to the COVID-19, pulmonologists in the Republika Srpska (RS) can hardly predict whether the epidemiological situation will worsen in the fall and which strain will appear.
”It is possible that some new form of mutated or non-mutated form will appear in those flu seasons. In what form and number of patients are very difficult to predict,” the president of the Association of Pulmonologists of RS, Mirko Stanetic, points out.
European health experts predict that omicron and subvariants will disappear quickly, but that the delta strain has proven to be more resistant and could reappear. The World Health Organization has not yet declared an end to the pandemic, so many countries are preparing for a new wave of COVID-19 in the fall.
