The day after the Ministry of Health imposed the mandatory use of masks in health centers throughout Spain (six communities, including Catalonia, had already adopted the measure days before), the data suggests that “the flu epidemic could having reached its maximum activity in Primary Care in the last week of the year, although hospitalization for influenza continues to rise. The increase in hospitalization for RSV infection (which causes bronchiolitis) persists, especially in children under 1 year of age, while that a stabilization is observed in hospitalization due to covid in older patients.
This is the current epidemiological situation, according to the latest report on Sentinel Surveillance of Acute Respiratory Infection in Primary Care (ARI) and in Hospitals (SARI), prepared by the Carlos III Health Institute and which indicates that the incidence of these respiratory viruses in Primary Care is beginning to decline in most communities (although data is missing from four and the two autonomous cities), although not in all. In Catalonia they increased compared to the previous week, as well as in Aragon and Navarra.
These data become important since depending on the epidemiological situation, the communities may withdraw the obligation to wear a mask upon recommendation, something they will be able to do after registering a two-week reduction in the incidence of the three viruses that circulate in their respective territories.
In the first week of 2024, the rates of respiratory viruses in Primary Care show a downward trend in children under 15 years of age, while young adults and people aged 65 and over continue to rise slightly.
Hospitalization, for its part, has begun an evolution towards stabilization, exceeding the maximum rates observed in the season in the same period of the 2022-23 season, although it maintains a growing evolution in patients under 1 year of age and 80 years and older. .
At this time, the three viruses continue to circulate simultaneously, although the highest intensity of circulation continues to be observed in influenza, with a percentage of positive samples (41%) that decreases compared to the previous week and breaks the progressive rise registered in the last four weeks. .
This situation is reflected in the flu incidence rates in Primary Care, which in the fourth week after passing the basal threshold shows a downward trend that could signal the peak of activity in the previous week, with a very high level of transmissibility. , in relation to previous flu epidemics before and after the covid emergency. Hospitalization due to the flu continues to increase, especially in people 80 or older.
In the case of Covid, a downward trend is beginning to be observed in hospitalizations of patients aged 80 or over, while hospitalization due to RSV infection continues to increase in children under 1 year of age.
