The now dominant H1N1 influenza virus “derives from the one that caused the pandemic in 2009 and, like all influenza viruses, has undergone little change over the years.” This was stated by Gianni Rezza, epidemiologist, professor of Hygiene at the San Raffaele University of Milan and former head of the Prevention department of the Ministry of Health and of the Infectious Diseases department of the ISS. The virus, he specifies, “can cause, in rare cases, primary interstitial pneumonia in young adults. Naturally, in the elderly, it can frequently assume a certain level of danger”.
At the moment, adds the epidemiologist, “I believe we are close to the peak, but it will take some time before the season ends.
For the vulnerable who have not yet been vaccinated, we are in the ‘Cesarini Zone’: it would be wise to get vaccinated now to protect yourself in this tail end of the season”. Already last spring, explains Rezza, “there were signs that the influenza A virus /H1N1, which we encountered with the swine pandemic in 2009, would have played a major role in this year’s flu season. In last year’s flu season the A/H3N2 virus was predominant. But towards the end of the season it was progressively replaced by the A/H1N1 influenza virus. There was what is called a ‘herald wave’, a wave of announcements, which told us that this virus would circulate this year.” The reliability of the announcement was then confirmed by the trend of influenza in the Southern hemisphere, where there was a very intense season, with a strong presence of H1N1: in Australia, for example, it caused more than half of the cases. Now in Italy, it has been detected in over 95% of the samples analyzed and typed from the laboratories belonging to the RespiVirNet surveillance network of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità.
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