An "extraordinary and violent" season of ailments is still underway, in which it is not only the circulation of the flu virus that weighs, but also the syncyntial one: a mix that has led to an important impact, both in terms of infections and hospitalizations .
"If in recent years, in these days, the flu season could be considered closed, this year it will last at least until the end of April - underlines Massimo Andreoni, scientific director of the Italian Society of Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Simit) - it would be necessary to monitor the situation for understand if we are dealing with a unicum or if the current situation risks becoming more and more frequent".
This year's flu season marked the highest number of infections in the last 23 years as certified by data from the
Higher Institute of Health (Iss).
"It started early, at the 42nd week and not at the usual 48th, - explains Claudio Cricelli, president of the Italian Society of General Medicine (Simg) - to then reach a small and lasting high, and continue to stay quite high for the entire winter season. Now a slow and progressive decline is observed, but we are still above the epidemic threshold: if among adults and the elderly we are talking about only 5.8 cases per 1000 inhabitants, for children it is very high".
The numbers of flu-like syndromes speak for themselves: at the end of March there was talk of about 13 million citizens affected, a number destined to increase until the end of April.
"However, it was not only the flu virus that circulated - continues Cricelli -, especially that A compared to that B,