The flu continues to rise in Catalonia with an incidence of 153 cases per 100,000 inhabitants – higher than that of the same week last year –, especially in children under 4 years of age, which indicates that its rise will probably continue in the coming weeks. according to the forecasts provided yesterday by the Department of Health.
The current peak of flu incidence during Christmas week is even lower than that of the years before the pandemic, when it reached around 350-400 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to Salut.
“The level of transmission is high and the high incidence in children under 4 years of age indicates that it will probably continue to rise,” the same sources stated. In fact, the week of December 18 to 24, diagnosed flu cases exceeded 10,000 and the following week they already stood at 12,087, indicate the data provided yesterday.
On the other hand, cases of bronchiolitis have decreased from 803 to 630 and pneumonia cases have also decreased a little, from 2,604 to 2,538.
These data refer to week 52 of 2023, from December 25 to 31, when 66,565 cases of acute respiratory infections (ARI) have been registered throughout Catalonia, a figure that includes flu, covid, RSV (respiratory virus syncytial or bronchiolitis) and other respiratory infections, which together have had an incidence of 845 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, which indicates a slight decrease that Salut attributes to the coincidence with the Christmas holidays, in which this department It has not carried out the sentinel sample collection that it normally does and because citizens have made less use of the healthcare services.
In any case, Health warns that the positivity of the multi-tests in the pediatric population shows that the flu continues to be the most circulating virus and ARIs already crowd the emergency services of large Barcelona hospitals, such as Sant Pau, although The peak of these diseases has not yet been reached.
The Christmas holidays, with family and mass gatherings, have favored the increase in infections of respiratory viruses, points out Dr. Míriam Mateo, head of the Emergency Service Unit at the Sant Pau Hospital.
In this center they have had a “very bad” last week of the year, with many consultations per day from older patients and others with serious underlying pathologies, such as heart conditions, who are more affected by the flu or respiratory viruses and end up admitted. at the hospital.
Mateo admits that they are “full”, while a spokesperson for the Vall d’Hebron Hospital acknowledges that “we have more admissions due to viruses, like every year around this time.” At the Hospital del Mar, for their part, they indicate that they continue with the same pressure as in recent weeks, “like every year.”
For his part, the president of the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine, Antoni Sisó, considered yesterday that the perception in primary care consultations is that cases of flu and covid have especially increased.
The transmission of flu continues to rise (45.2% of cases), followed by RSV (15.8%) and covid, which remains stable (4.8%).
The incidence of the latter seems to be stabilizing, although hospital admissions of affected patients have increased in Catalonia. There are currently 720 people admitted to Catalan hospitals in normal beds – 176 more than last week – and 24 people are in the ICU, 11 more than the previous week.
In this sense, the vaccine coverage of vulnerable people against covid is 58% for those over 80 years of age and 45% for people between 70 and 79 years of age, while the flu coverage for the same groups is higher. , with 65% and 52%, respectively.