The flu virus has returned with force, but with the added handicap of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV, which causes bronchiolitis) and the covid (the ‘tripledemia’, as defined by epidemiologist Daniel López). Acuña). The incidence of the latter two is already reducing throughout the territory, but not the flu, which is clearly continuing to rise and is expected to continue until at least the end of next week (mid-January).
What has not yet decreased are hospitalizations as a result of Covid and RSV, which continue to increase, to which we must add that the number of hospitalizations due to flu has almost doubled (especially of those over 80) in just one week, according to the latest report issued by the Carlos III Health Institute corresponding to the last week of 2023 and which has just been published.
This panorama translates into an increase in patients in health centers and hospitals, which are once again facing strong tensions that threaten to collapse in many communities. And it does so at a time when the system is weakened by the lack of professionals, especially in Primary Care.
Tension is experienced in most of the territory. In Madrid, for example, health centers cannot cope with patients, who have to wait several days (up to two weeks in some parts of the capital) to be treated. This delay is transferred to hospital emergencies. In large centers such as La Paz or Doce de Octubre, patients wait long hours to be treated, as well as those who have to be admitted.
This panorama, according to Csif, is experienced in La Rioja (“the increase in respiratory diseases is collapsing hospital emergencies, with patients even spending hours waiting in the lobbies and in the ambulances themselves, which, being full, cannot transport other patients”, points out this union), in Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Aragón (“the emergency rooms of the community hospitals are saturated. This has the consequence that patients wait several days to be admitted to the ward” ), Galicia, Andalusia…There are regions, such as Valencia, that “have begun to fold beds in rooms”, while others, such as Cantabria, “have even suspended some surgical activity due to lack of beds”, indicates the Csif.
The former director of Health Action in Crisis Situations of the World Health Organization (WHO), Daniel López Acuña, points out that a “tripledemic of large proportions” is occurring, once again. With a seasonal flu that dominates the panorama and that in the last 4 or 5 weeks has multiplied the number of cases by 10. “But covid is also present and the WHO has indicated that in recent weeks there has been an increase of 35% in the number of cases registered worldwide”, as well as RSV, which is especially affecting children under one year of age.
“We are facing a public health problem that requires more forceful actions by the authorities and state and regional health systems,” explains the expert.
What measures? “We must intensify vaccination efforts and not wait for people who should be vaccinated against covid and flu to go to the health center. It would have to be done in sports centers, for example, to improve coverage (this year, barely 50%). Cases are being treated individually and there is not enough force with vaccination and the need to reintroduce protection with masks. You have to anticipate the facts and not go behind them. “This requires a public health strategy and not just healthcare.”
