Influenza, Pregliasco: “Peak at Christmas with 250,000 cases a day, 10 million Italians in bed until New Year’s”

“With the Australian flu it will be a tough season, as always there will be deaths, usually between 5,000 and 15,000. The peak is expected at Christmas, about 250,000 cases a day “. Fabrizio Pregliasco, associate professor of general and applied hygiene at the University of Milan and director of Irccs Galeazzi-Sant’Ambrogio, has been repeating it for days, warning of the latest respiratory virus in circulation. The flu, which has already put 2.5 million Italians to bed, however seems to affect children more, who after two years of masks, have not come into contact with the flu viruses and are in fact more exposed to contagion. The virus spreads thanks
to droplets spread by coughing and sneezing or even by direct contact by touching contaminated objects. Incubation is usually two days. You are contagious up to 5 days after the onset of symptoms. The peak of flu is expected during the holiday season: “During the Christmas period, when it will reach 150,000 cases per day, for a seasonal total of 10 million cases on New Year’s Eve – says the scientist – This flu will make the season very tough. It will cause deaths, as always, and the range of people who die from the flu goes from 5,000 to 20,000″.

For this reason, the Federation of Family Doctors (Fimmg) invites us to extend beyond December, for the entire month of January, the flu vaccination campaign. It is also suggested to protect yourself with masks and good hand hygiene. “We absolutely must try to prevent this incidence of the virus from reaching its peak keep for more than the usual one or two weeks before the descentsa, creating serious problems until late spring. So it’s good to get vaccinated as soon as possible – recommends Silvestro Scotti, general secretary of Fimmg – and continue to use masks and the hygiene rules that we have learned to use for the Covid pandemic “. “In the last two years – explains Walter Ricciardi, full professor of hygiene and preventive medicine at the Catholic University – the use of masks and the hygiene rules adopted against Covid greatly limited the spread of the flu virus. Thanks to the desire to return to normalcy, this year the precautionary rules are now considered outdated and the vaccination campaign has gone very badly, but it is a mistake. What is needed is a combination of measures such as vaccination, both against Covid and against the flu, and the intensification of public health measures – he underlines – The individual response to epidemiological emergencies is not sufficient to protect the population: a public, coordinated and evidence-based approach”.