Get vaccinated, especially if you are at risk.
Continue to wear the mask and wash your hands often.
In a nutshell, this is the appeal launched by Fimmg which also asks to extend the flu vaccination campaign to the end of January.
"Never in the last 15 years - says the secretary general Silvestro Scotti - have we had to deal with a flu peak comparable to the one we are recording in recent weeks. It is vital that those at risk choose to get vaccinated as soon as possible, otherwise we risk having to live dramatic months".
Seasonal flu, characterized by a very high fever, respiratory and sometimes gastrointestinal symptoms, is, in fact, proving to be far more aggressive and dangerous than it was possible to predict.
The general practitioners of Fimmg are alarmed by the data on the flu epidemic curve, which show a huge and extremely early spread of the virus.
So much so that the doctors themselves predict that at this rate the peak will be reached even before Christmas.
"If Covid has taught us that the peak phase is the one beyond which the descent then begins - continues Scotti - it should also be considered that bypassing the 'summit', if one does not protect oneself with the vaccine, could have a very high price. high in terms of lives. Looking at current data, in fact, the
"In the last two years - concludes Walter Ricciardi, full professor of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine at the Catholic University - the use of masks and the hygiene rules adopted against Covid have greatly limited the spread of the flu virus. Thanks to the desire to return to normality, this year the precautionary rules are considered outdated and the vaccination campaign went very badly, but it is a mistake. What is needed is a combination of measures such as vaccination, both against Covid and against the flu, and the 'intensification of public health measures'.
