Economy 6 April 2023, 12:02pm

Influenza epidemic remains in slow retreat in Hungary

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The number of respiratory illnesses and of people seeking medical help with influenza-like symptoms dropped further in Hungary over the past seven days compared to the preceding week, the weekly report of the National Centre for Public Health (NNK) showed on Thursday. The decline gathered pace again after a sharp fall.

The NNK said that on the 13th week of the year, 200,700 people went to the doctor with symptoms of severe acute respiratory infections (down from 215,700 a week earlier), of whom 29,800 (14.8%) were diagnosed with influenza-like illness, in contrast with 39,400 (18.3%) a week earlier.

If it were not for the holiday season when people are less inclined to visit the GP's office and complain about "just a wee cough", we would not see that dip towards end-2022 in the lines below.

The SARI figure shows a 7.0% drop (versus 2.6% a week ago which followed a nearly 20% decline), and the number of flu-like symptoms has fallen by 24.4% (vs. almost 11% a week ago that followed a 30% drop), i.e. the winding down of the flu season cannot be called into question.

A month ago, GPs warned that the epidemic could drag out this year and may not be over even at the end of March. while they were hopeful that the milder weather will reduce the prevalence of SARI and the flu. Temperatures, however, remained chilly, which keeps the number of people with SARI as high as on the 46th week of 2022, although at that time less than half as many people showed flu-like symptoms.

A breakdown of the positive samples show the prevalence of the flu, followed by SARS-CoV-2 and RSV. The graph shows percentages of cumulated data, with the x axis showing the weeks starting on the 40th week of 2022 up to the 13th week of 2023.

OF THE 88 RESPIRATORY SPECIMENS (down sharply FROM 124 A WEEK AGO) SENT IN BY DOCTORS, 41 (46.6%) WERE FOUND TO BE INFLUENZA OF SOME TYPE, nine (10.2%) WERE SARS-COV-2, AND two (2.3%) PATIENTS HAD RESPIRATORY GIANT CELL VIRUS (RSV).

This compares with 54.0%, 6.5% and 0.8% the week before, respectively.

Last week, 201 people (218 on the preceding week) were hospitalised for severe acute respiratory infections, 28 of whom required intensive care (38 a week earlier). Of the 201 patients, 23.9% (48) were aged 2 years or younger (down from 26.6% or 58) and 48.8% (98) were aged 60 years or older (versus 48.6% or 106 a week ago).

Of the patients requiring hospital care, 19 or 9.5% were affected by influenza (vs. 32 or 14.7% a week ago), 65 (32.3%) by SARS-CoV-2 (vs. 54 or 24.8% a week ago) and 15 (7.5%) by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) or respiratory giant cell infection (vs. 17 or 7.8%).

86.7% of RSV positive patients (13) were 2 years old or younger, while 87.7% (57) of people hospitalised with coronavirus infection were in the 60+ age group. The former figure shows a rise from 82.4% last week and the latter edged up from 87.0%.

The age breakdown (see the four graphs below) shows that SARI affected primarily children, and to a smaller extent young adults since the 40th week of last year, while flu-like illnesses started to "pick on" children and young Hungarians from the fourth week of 2023.

Of course, the greater number of infections among children also has to do with the fact that concerned parents generally take their offspring to a paediatrician much more willingly and frequently than older people seek medical help, thinking they will just tough it out.

Of all the patients that went to the doctor with flu-like symptoms, 40.6% (12,099 vs. 16,430 a week ago) were children. 30.3% were aged 15-34 (9,029 vs. 11,662), 21.7% (6,467 vs. 8,116) were in the 35-59 age group, and 7.4% (2,205 vs. 3,191) were over 60.

As for the age breakdown of people going to the doctor with SARI, 51.9% (104,163 vs. 108,497 a week ago) were children, 24.1% were aged 15-34 (48,369 vs. 51,552), 15.9% (31,911 vs. 36,238) were in the 35-59 age group, and 8.1% (16,257 vs. 19,413) were over 60.