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ANP Productions | Bron: ANP
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Bilthoven
According to RIVM experts, it is difficult to predict how long the current flu wave in the Netherlands will last and how high the peak in the number of infections will be. “We don’t actually know what will happen with the flu, now that the corona pandemic is hopefully coming to an end,” says researcher and head of department Adam Meijer.
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“It may continue for weeks, but it may also subside and we will no longer have a flu wave before the summer. We will see,” said Meijer.
The dominant flu variant this year is H3N2, a subtype of Influenza A. The flu shot that people over 60 and people with fragile health received in the autumn offers, according to preliminary figures, a protection of approximately 30 percent against infection. That is exactly the average for the past ten years.
Number of complaints
Those who have received the shot have about 40 percent less chance of hospitalization due to flu, adds epidemiologist Rianne van Gageldonk. She is head of the respiratory infectious diseases department at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.
According to the latest figures, last week 61 in every 100,000 people in the Netherlands went to the doctor with flu-like complaints. That number is just above the limit that is normally used to speak of an epidemic: 58 visits to the doctor per 100,000 inhabitants.
Epidemic
However, the figures do not compare well with previous years, say the experts. People with flu-like complaints now often take a corona test and will be less inclined to go to the doctor, they think. Influenza virus is found in 62 percent of the test samples from general practitioners and corona test streets that are examined for flu. Such high percentages indicate that an epidemic is indeed underway.
On average, people get the flu once every ten years. According to the experts, the fact that the flu virus has hardly been present for a while due to the corona measures does not mean that we are no longer resistant to it. “Actually, we only missed one season,” says Meijer. He expects that this will not have a major impact on, for example, young children who only come into contact with influenza viruses at a later date.
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