The flu activity in our country appears to be entering a new phase. While the week that ended last Sunday, January 18, may be the first to show clear signs of de-escalation from the very high flu activity, the risk of illness remains steadfast. For example, according to what was announced this morning by the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers (POEDIN), Michalis Giannakos, a 6-year-old child is hospitalized on a ventilator with flu in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Athens children’s hospital “Agia Sophia,” while another 3-year-old child is hospitalized in the same ICU with flu, without being on a ventilator. Neither of the two sick children suffers from a diagnosed underlying disease.
Thus, flu continues to move at high levels in our country, NHS hospitals continue to “test” the limits of their capacity in their internal medicine, pulmonology, and pediatric clinics, but specialist scientists from the National Public Health Organization (NPHO) estimate that we have already moved into the phase of gradual de-escalation of the first epidemic wave of the disease outbreak in our country.
NPHO: Reduced flu positivity
According to the weekly epidemiological bulletin of the National Public Health Organization (NPHO), the total number of flu patients who were admitted for hospitalization to NHS hospitals across the country for the week that ended on Sunday, January 18, recorded a very serious decrease, approximately 250 fewer flu patients, meaning the reduction reaches up to 28%, with the total admissions being just above 600, specifically 613, compared to 876 in the immediately previous week.
Additionally, flu positivity in the community appears slightly reduced for the first time, from 49% to 44%, within a framework of gradual de-escalation, while a clear drop is also recorded in the total number of new flu cases in the general population of our country.
The main question now is whether the “plateau” phenomenon will be repeated for a second time in our country, rather than the more common single “peak” phenomenon, from which we appear to be moving away.
In simple terms, if one looks at the histograms of the National Public Health Organization (NPHO) for the spread of flu and other respiratory viruses, they will see that every year, except for one year, these have the shape of a “mountain with one distinct peak.” However, one year both flu and other respiratory viruses “gave” our country two peaks, resulting in the NPHO histogram having the shape of a “plateau,” where the spread of flu and other respiratory viruses remained at very high levels for consecutive weeks before this spread began to de-escalate.
