Hospitalizations for gripe have dropped more than 30% in Spain with the slowing of the endemic wave, but they remain high due to this disease and other respiratory viruses in vulnerable and older people, which is why experts urge not to let our guard down in the face of a care overload which not only affects Spain, but also other European countries.
The flu epidemic marks a decrease in Spain by accumulating two consecutive weeks in the cases diagnosed by Primary Care, a reference data to measure the magnitude of the wave, which is beginning to be transferred to hospitals, according to the latest report from the Health System. Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance (Sivira), published by the Carlos III Health Institute with data from January 8 to 14.
However, experts and medical societies such as the Spanish General and Family Physicians Association (SEMG) call for maintaining vigilance because, although patients with banal pathologies have decreased, admissions for flu and other respiratory viruses have decreased. they continue to strain the system health and they will do it for a few more weeks.
And it is that This situation is not only typical of Spain, but also of the European environment.which in this winter season registers a confluence of respiratory viruses that has complicated the hospital panorama, as the World Health Organization (WHO) warned this week.
Flu hospitalizations in the European region, according to data released this week, have increased by 58% in the first fifteen days of the year and admissions to intensive care by 21%, with a greater impact on those over 65 years of age and children, which which has caused the WHO to ask that European health systems be prepared for an eventual increase in cases in the coming weeks.
The flu shows signs of truce in Spain
In Spain, admissions have decreased in the last week from 14.9 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants to 10.6, that is, just over 30%, a trend that is also recorded in hospitalizations of people over 79 years of age. , which decrease slightly but reach almost 80 cases due to the aforementioned proportion of inhabitants.
As for all respiratory diseases in hospitals, the global rate in the second week of January fell to 28.4 cases per hundred thousand inhabitants (35.2 cases in the previous week), and again adults over 79 years represent the group that admits the most (221 cases), along with those under one year of age (120).
Emergencies, even with high peaks
The Spanish Society of Emergencies and Emergencies (SEMES) has indicated this week that the decreases in flu records and in respiratory diseases as a whole are not necessarily conclusive, since they could rebound again in the coming weeks and remembers that although They did not do it, the situation in the emergency room is not normalized or controlled.
Also the Society of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (SEIMC) predicts a couple more weeks of complications in the hospitalsalthough he breathes a certain relief at having less income, while pointing out that the situation at the community level, in line with the WHO, is expectant.
The WHO reiterates the usefulness of masks
The WHO considers that in Europe as a whole, flu records continue to grow and those of covid-19, although falling, are still high, which is why it maintains its advice on the use of the mask in health centers as a “strong recommendation”.