Winter is approaching and with it the next wave of influenza. Many underestimate influenza, putting it on the same level as the classic cold. However, about a third of influenza sufferers express serious symptoms such as high fever or muscle, headache and body aches. There is also an increased risk of a particularly severe course of the viral infectious disease in people over 60 years of age, pregnant women and people with chronic underlying diseases. For these risk groups and medical staff, the Standing Vaccination Committee (STIKO) at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recommends vaccination against seasonal influenza. Everyone else can of course also be vaccinated.
Those who are vaccinated take responsibility for their environment and help limit the spread of the disease. Citizens can provide additional support on the RKI online portal GrippeWeb. GrippeWeb cooperates with the Influenza Working Group (breaking latest news), which monitors the activity of acute respiratory diseases in Germany and draws on information from doctors in private practice. It is precisely this information that the portal supplements with information from the population. Every week, users who are registered with GrippeWeb report anonymously to the Robert Koch Institute whether they or their children have developed new respiratory diseases with symptoms such as a cough, runny nose, sore throat or fever. Reports about the absence of complaints also play an important role here – this is the only way to determine who are actually sick GrippeWeb users. Incidentally, the weekly updates do not take up much time. The effort per message is less than a minute.