Intestinal flu, it’s an “epidemic of gastroenteritis. They last up to a week”

2023-10-31 19:17:47

Gastroenteritis is the number one enemy of Italians in recent weeks. These paraflu forms are the most widespread at the moment and concern 40% of patients who turn to family doctors for acute symptoms. This is followed by bacterial throat infections, which account for 25% of cases, while only 10% have the flu. The map of autumn ailments is traced for time.news Salute by Silvestro Scotti, national secretary of the Federation of general practitioners (Fimmg).

“The pathology we are seeing most often in our studies – explains Scotti – is this gastrointestinal form which, in several cases, extends beyond 48 hours. And in some cases, especially in elderly subjects, it is also difficult to stop: they risk have significant gastrointestinal symptoms for even a week. In these cases, great attention is needed because the loss of fluids in a person who, as generally happens with older patients, has heart disease or other impairments must be observed to avoid the patient becomes decompensated”. Then, adds secretary Fimmg, “many bacterial forms of the upper respiratory tract are circulating, streptococcus in particular”.

The cases of flu observed by family doctors “at the moment are still quite sporadic”, Scotti reports. “We can estimate one patient in 10 among those who contact us for acute symptoms, with some regional differences linked to temperatures.” But from here “they will rise little by little, also due to the change in the climate which up to now has been warmer than in past seasons in most of the peninsula. And this has kept the virus at bay a little”.

“This slow start – specifies the Fimmg summit – must not make us forget that the flu is still an important disease, not a trivial one. The lowering of temperatures towards which we are heading will favor cooling and the possibility for the virus to develop and circulate. It’s the right time to get vaccinated”, urges Scotti.

“We also see cases of Covid – he concludes – but to a much lesser extent than in previous years and in the knowledge that they are certainly more present than those detected, because there is widespread use of self-swabbing which is used a lot: I would say in 3 cases on 4”.