I’m almost 4 and a half million Italians affected so far by the 2022 Australian flu: since the beginning of surveillance, there have been 4,462,000 infected, reports the latest bulletin of sentinel doctors of the Influnet network, released by the Higher Institute of Health. In the last week, around 917,000 people were infected with flu-like syndromesa slight decrease compared to the 943 thousand of the previous week.
“Growing stops” in the number of cases of flu-like illnesses in Italy. In the 49th week of 2022, the incidence is in fact equal to 15.5 cases per thousand assisted (it was 16.0 in the previous week) and stands in the “high intensity range” according to what emerges from the Influnet report relating to the week from 5 to 11 December in which – explains the ISS – the epidemic curve of the flu stopped rising. “So far its trend is anticipated – we read – with an incidence value in the peak higher than all previous seasons”.
AFFECTED REGIONS – In 6 Italian regions/autonomous provinces the incidence of the Australian flu has exceeded the threshold of “maximum intensity”: they are Piedmont, Pa di Bolzano, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Marche and Abruzzo. Calabria and Sardinia, it is recalled in the report relating to the 49th week of 2022, have not activated surveillance.
INCIDENCE – The 2022-2023 flu continues to run at very high levels among children. In the 0-4 age group, the incidence of flu-like syndromes “is equal to 50.62 cases per thousand assisted”a much higher figure than the national average of the general population, which stands at 15.54 cases per thousand, and higher than the incidence recorded in all other age groups.
The lowest incidence is found in the older age group, among people aged 65 or over: 6.49 cases per thousand assisted. In the 5-14 age group, however, there were 27.56 cases per thousand assisted, and in the 15-64 age group 12.81/thousand. When the trend, the incidence turns out to be “stable in all age groups”, notes the ISS. As confirmed by the data “however, the pediatric age groups and in particular children under the age of 5 are most affected“.
The growth in the number of flu-like syndromes, in these first weeks of surveillance – recalls the ISS – is supported not only by influenza viruses but also by other respiratory viruses.