The unusually strong and long wave of influenza in Austria ended last week. The positive rate of the evaluated random samples fell to seven percent, the Center for Virology at MedUni Vienna reported on its website today. Below ten percent, doctors no longer speak of an epidemic level for influenza. There are currently only sporadic flu infections, it was explained.
climax before Christmas
The influenza epidemic had already been declared by the local reference laboratory at MedUni this season at the end of November in autumn. So far, the influenza season has usually peaked in January or February. This time, the peak was reached in the week before Christmas, when the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) had calculated an incidence of 5,849 new infections with influenza and flu-like illnesses.
However, the situation was expected after the two previous CoV pandemic winters, because the measures taken to combat the pandemic meant that there was no flu epidemic and the one in the previous year was very small. As a result, many in the population had not experienced influenza infections, and immunity had fallen. RS viruses (RSV), which like the “real flu” can lead to serious illnesses in children, also appeared more frequently this winter – alongside SARS-CoV-2 and other corona viruses.
