Health Alerts

The ECDC has warned that the region could be heading for a severe influenza season this year, borne out by an early increase in flu detections in Croatia. As the A(H3N2) subtype has been dominant to date, the agency’s programme chief said that the effects of the pandemic combined with a bad flu season “could have serious consequences for the elderly and those with weak immune systems and could place an additional burden on health systems already strained by COVID-19”. The 2020-2021 flu season was exceptionally mild due to non-pharmaceutical interventions, however in general, ‘approximately 20% of the population become infected with influenza each year and one in four infected people will develop symptoms’. More on the global flu situation from the Oct 25 WHO update. Read more