Decreased influenza and stabilization of syncytial virus hospitalizations

Decreased influenza and stabilization of syncytial virus hospitalizations

“Hey Number of new hospitalizations due to RSV infection [vírus sincicial respiratório] “In children younger than 24 months in the sentinel surveillance network it has remained low and stable in recent weeks,” said the INSA Epidemiological Surveillance Bulletin for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses.

Since October 2, 2023, the start of the season, 401 RSV hospitalizations have been reported by the hospitals that make up this network.

About 49% of the cases were younger than three months old, 17% were premature babies and 10% required ventilation or were admitted to an intensive care unit, according to the National Institute of Statistics.

The data also indicates that “all-cause mortality is in line with expectations” for this time of year.

In the week from 22 to 28 January, 479 positive cases of influenza virus were identified in the Portuguese laboratory network for the diagnosis of influenza and respiratory viruses, of which 464 were type A and 13 were type B. In 60 of the cases the subtype A(H1)pdm09 was identified and Subtype A(H3) identified in 6 cases.

Since the start of the season, hospitals have reported 69,359 respiratory infections, and 14,310 influenza cases have been identified.

Last week, two cases of influenza were reported by the 20 intensive care units (ICU) that sent information, and non-subsub A influenza virus was identified in both cases.

“One patient was found to be between 65-74 years old and the other to be between 55-64 years old. Among the patients, only one had a chronic disease and both had a recommendation for seasonal influenza vaccination, and neither had been vaccinated,” INSA notes.

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This week, the rate of influenza in intensive care was 1.3%, which is lower than that recorded in the previous week (5.4%).

“The incidence of influenza in the ICU increased between weeks 50 and 52 of 2023.” [entre 11 e 31 de dezembro]It reached 17.1%, which is a higher value than that recorded in similar periods (the maximum rate was 13.5% in the 2013-2014 season), and it has been declining since then.

Since October 2023, 142 cases of influenza have been reported by ICUs collaborating on surveillance, with influenza A virus identified in 135 cases.

Data indicate that 76 patients (53.5%) were aged 65 years or older, 30 patients were aged 55-64 (21.1%), 23 patients were aged 45-54 (16.2%), and seven were aged 35- 44 (4.9%). ), five between 25-34 (3.5%) and one between 18-24 (0.7%).

Of the total cases, 120 (84.5%) had an underlying chronic disease, two cases were pregnant, and 129 (90.8%) had a recommendation for seasonal influenza vaccination, and 37 of them were vaccinated.

Last week, four cases of influenza were also reported by the three departments (one adult and two pediatrics) that sent the information, with non-subtype A influenza virus identified in the total number of cases.

Since the beginning of the season, 131 cases of influenza have been reported by departments cooperating in surveillance, and influenza A virus has been identified in 130 cases.

According to the data, four co-infections were identified in the previous week, one of which was a co-infection of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza virus, which since October totaled 275 cases.

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At this time, other respiratory factors were identified in 9-389 cases. Last week, other respiratory agents were identified in 304 cases, with respiratory syncytial virus and viruses from the picornavirus group being the most frequently detected, INSA said in the bulletin.

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By Andrea Hargraves

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