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The number of reported infections with flu and corona is falling, and coughs and colds are also less common than a few weeks ago. The Easter holidays should mean the end of the season for most viruses.
The second wave of influenza this year is not officially over yet. But the numbers are falling significantly. So far, around 2,700 new influenza infections have been officially reported for calendar week 13 to April 2nd. The week before, there were still around 3,700. This emerges from the current weekly report of the Influenza working group of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
Influenza B: Children and adolescents in particular were affected
In the past few weeks, the age groups of school children (5 to 14 years) and young adults (15 to 43 years) have been particularly affected. This means that an imminent end to the flu season is foreseeable, since the Easter holidays have now begun everywhere and the transmission of infections in the classrooms has thus been stopped. “A further decline in ARE and specifically influenza activity is expected over the next two weeks due to the Easter holidays,” the report said.
While influenza A (H3N2) viruses were still responsible for most influenza diseases in autumn, the infection process has been determined by influenza B type (Victoria lineage) since the beginning of the year. But here, too, the evidence in the so-called sentinel system goes back. A number of representative selected medical practices send virus samples to the RKI laboratory. While the laboratory was still able to detect 30 influenza B infections in week 12 (March 20-26), a week later there were only 14.
Corona: All indicators point to the end of the season
The number of other acute respiratory infections has also left the level of between 7.3 and 8.6 percent, which had been stable for weeks. Based on the Grippeweb survey tool, the epidemiologists from the RKI estimate that around 6.8 percent of people in Germany contracted a new cold or cough in week 13. This corresponds to around 5.7 million acute illnesses. Even before the flu, the rather harmless rhinoviruses were dominant. The cough pathogen hMPV is also still widespread.
Corona is also being spread less and less at the moment. Officially, the 7-day incidence is now given as 21. Various scientists have already noted in the past few weeks that this number is probably no longer representative, since only a small proportion of infections are confirmed by a laboratory result. However, a decline in detections in the sentinel system and falling viral loads in wastewater from sewage treatment plants also suggest that the season is also coming to an end for Covid-19.
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This topic in the program:MDR THURINGIA | THURINGIA JOURNAL | March 24, 2023 | 7:00 p.m
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