Economy 22 January 2026, 5:45pm

Share of influenza behind hospitalisations in Hungary highest since 2022/23

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Almost 60% of hospitalisations were linked to influenza infection on the third week of 2026, data from the National Centre for Public Health and Pharmacy (NNGYK) showed on Thursday. A local virologist warned that although the season of respiratory infections would be peaking in a few weeks, it is still worth protecting ourselves via vaccination.

Based on GP reports, the NNGYK estimates that 216,300 Hungarians sought medical hlep with acute respiraotry infection (ARI), including 45,700 with influenza-like illness (ILI) on the 3rd week of 2026 (12-18 January).

Compared with the previous three seasons, both figures are lowr than in 2024/25, but higher than in the preceding two seasons.

The share of ILI within ARI edged higher to 21.1%, the second highest figure compared to the past three seasons (it stood at 21.8% a year ago).

As regards the number of ILI per 100,000 population, we had the third highest figure this year, which was exceeded on the third week only in 2025 and in 2017.

Gábor Kemenesi, director of the National Virology Laboratory, pointed out in a Facebook post that, according to data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), influenza is still spreading rapidly, while this year's respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season is also approaching.

According to him, the difficulty this season is that the symptoms largely overlap with those of all the other viruses currently spreading. However, the precautions against them are very similar:

These include hand washing, hand sanitising, frequent ventilation, wearing masks in public places and restricting visits to newborns, elderly people and those with chronic illnesses for safety reasons.

The researcher emphasises that it is important to understand that it is never too late to get vaccinated. According to the NNGYK, the vaccine is still available from family doctors.

So, why is this flu season so bad? Scientists suspect that the situation is, in part, due to anew strain of the influenza virus that has risen to dominance. The variant has a high number of key mutations, which means that it is much less similar to the strain used in the flu vaccine than previous seasons’ viruses have been. This might make it easier for the virus to shrug off the immune system and vaccines. Furthermore, the dominant strain belongs to a viral subtype that has been circulating for decades but was not dominant in the past few flu seasons, meaning that many people have relatively weak immunity against it, Nature magazine reported. Even so, there isevidenceto suggest that currently available flu vaccines offer protection against severe illness.

While the total number of samples tested exceeds the 2022/23 figure by the 50th week, it remains below the 2023/24 and 2024/25 figures.

Positivity rates

As you can see on the graph below, there was a swtich between influenza and coronavirus on the 51st week and we should not expect the ratios to reverse in the remainder of the season, either.

The coronavirus positivity rate edged lower to 5.0% from 6.8%, which compares with 2.8% a year ago, 16.8% two years ago and 9.7% three years ago.

The influenza positivity rate dropped to 27.7% from 30.4%. It compares with 41.9% a year ago, 20.1% two years ago and 22.4% three years ago.

The first time samples showed the presence of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) was on the 46th week and although the positivity rate remains low (2.3%), it's worth pointing out that it peaked around 24% at the end of 2022, early 2023. However, the patterns of the last three seasons have provided very little useful information for making forecasts. Going out on a limb, based on the number of infections so far we should expect the RSV positivity rate to remain under 15%. The average of the past three seasons is 4.9%.

Hospitalisations

There were 191 people in hospital with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), up 2.7% from 186 a week ago. The record high this year was hit at 220 on the 1st week.

Eight of them tested positive for COVID-19 (4.2%), which compares with 7.2% in 2024/25 and 50.2% in 2023/24. A year ago, hospitals admitted a lot more SARI patients on the 3rd week (250), and we saw higher figures also in 2023/24 (201) and 2022/23 (211).

11 of the 191 patients needed intensive of subintensive care, a ratio of 5.8%, down from 9.1% a week ago. There were 29 SARI patients in ICU on the same week a year ago (11.6%), 25 two years ago (12.4%), and 38 three years ago (18.0%).

All of those admitted to hospital with a coronavirus infection were over 60 years old (8 in total), and more than 38% of SARI patients were in this age group (73 in total). However, 22%) of SARI patients were under two years old (42 in total).

The National Centre for Public Health and Pharmacy (NNGYK) also had some key data published since the official end of the previous respiratory season on the 20th week, which show a general increase in the number of hospitalsed SARI patients since the 35th week, except for a surprise drop on the 42nd and 45th week.

influenza was responsible for more hospitalisations than covid-19 For the fifth consecutive week (57.6% versus 4.2%, see detailed chart below).

Up to the 51st week, this season was less severe than previous ones in terms of the proportion of people with ARI who ended up in hospital. However, a sharp increase was observed in the 51st week, and the percentage in the first week of 2026 showed the worst situation compared to the previous three seasons. Fortunately, the major worsening was followed by a significant correction and now we're back below the comparative figures of the past three years.

The patterns of the previous years suggest that the ratio of coronavirus infections in hospitalisations should keep dropping and get close to 0-10% by the 5th or 6th week of next year. In parallel with this, the proportion of influenza infections behind hospitalisations has started to pick up already as expected. And then there's the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to consider.

This is how the pathogens 'swapped places' as the main reason behind hospitalisations last year, although there's absolutely no guarantee that we'll see the same trajectories this year.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of hospitalisations by type of infection for the current and past respiratory infection seasons. That the share of coronavirus infection behind hospitalisations hovered between 47% and 74% in the first 16 weeks of the 2023/24 season, but since the chart is becoming an eye-sore, we've chosen against plotting flu and RSV data for 2023/24. In any case, the graphs below will make that comparison a lot easier.

And this is how they have been changed in the current and past three seasons of respiratory infections. (Note that the the RSV was not reported to be behind any hospitalisation until the 47th week in 2024 and the 49th week in 2023.)

While nothing stands out on the Covid and RSV charts, it is striking how the share of influenza behind hospitalisations leaped close to 60%, the highest of the four seasons plotted.

Age breakdown

Almost 45% of people seeking medical help with an acute respiratory infection (ARI) in week 2 were children aged up to 14 (cc. 96,700), up from 79,600 a week earlier. More than a quarter (26.8% or cc 58,000) were aged 15–34.

The graphs below show a breakdown of ARI patients by age group for this year and the previous two seasons.

When it comes to ILI, the most affected age group was once again those aged up to 14 years, accounting for 16,600 (36.4%) of all patients with influenza-like illness, followed by the 15-34 age group (14,850 or 32.5%).