“The difficulties – continues De Iaco – can only get worse in the coming weeks. We expect the peak during the holidays, when we will have more elderly patients but also more sick colleagues and therefore the need to cover more shifts with the same staff, already very scarce “.
Influenza wave started 3 weeks ago – The situation, he specifies, “is dramatic almost everywhere, it can no longer be located only in regions such as Lazio, Sardinia, Piedmont, Campania, Lombardy, but also in Veneto, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany or Friuli Venezia Giulia”, explains De Iaco. For the flu, the wave began about 3 weeks ago: “Children began to arrive in the emergency room first, but now the age is rising, which will increase during the holidays, a traditional moment of exchange of viruses between generations “. Compared to the normal trend of influenza virus epidemics, we are about a month ahead of schedule this year. We see numbers that pre-pandemic were reached in mid-January”.
Increased circulation of Covid – Added to this is the increase in the circulation of Covid, which goes far beyond the official numbers certified by swab positivity. “Many arrive with flu symptoms in the emergency room and we discover that it is Covid only at the time of the swab. On the other hand, the symptoms today are indistinguishable. And for the positives we have difficulty finding spaces and personnel for isolation”.
Family doctors: very rapid increase in flu cases – According to Silvestro Scotti, general secretary of the Italian Federation of general practitioners “there has been a very rapid growth in the incidence of flu-like syndrome, which in the last week has reached 16 cases per thousand assisted, the highest value in the last few 15 years. This means that every week a family doctor has about 100 patients who fall ill, which translates into at least 2-3 calls a week for each one to which are added visits and a lot of bureaucracy. We are practically going crazy”.
Peak not reached – “The growth of cases has been very rapid and I don’t think it has reached its peak yet”, adds Scotti, according to which the current situation could last “for weeks” and “there is also the risk of seeing flu queues between March-April , because subjects who have contracted the flu could have a not so stable immunity and get sick again months later”.
Very aggressive influence – Moreover, it is a “very aggressive flu, with a fever exceeding 40 degrees and with a strong respiratory component”, explains the national secretary of Fimmg. So far, over 3.5 million Italians have gone to bed with the flu, almost a million in the last week. Scotti points out that there are important differences based on age, which in some way could reflect a different use of vaccination.
The incidence – “In the age group aged 65 or over, the one who gets vaccinated the most, the incidence is 6.44 cases per thousand assisted, which rises to 13.16 in the 15-64 age group, to 29.29 in the 5-14, reaching 50.2 cases among children under 4”. For Scotti “there are many chronically ill patients between 15 and 64 years of age who should reflect on the fact of going to the doctor to get vaccinated”. To improve patient care, Fimmg is asking for “more resources for general medicine, with funding for practice staff that frees us from bureaucracy and allows us to have more time to devote to treatment”.