However, the number of infections was still comparatively high, as data from Vienna show. The health service in the federal capital estimated 13,150 new cases of influenza and flu-like illnesses in the previous week (week 2). That is similar to the number at the peak of the last flu epidemic before the corona pandemic in the 2019/20 season.
The peak of the current wave was reached in Vienna in the week before Christmas (week 50) with almost 34,000 calculated flu infections and influenza diseases. Thereafter, the new infections initially fell slightly at a high level and after the turn of the year from 31,000 to 18,500 (week 1) down significantly. For two years, the measures to contain the corona virus had pushed back the influenza. This winter, however, various viruses were able to circulate almost without restrictions and the strong cold wave of 2016/17 was also exceeded, when almost 20,000 cases of influenza and flu-like illnesses were estimated in Vienna at their peak.
The Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) also reported a decline across Austria for the previous week. The seven-day incidence (number of new cases within a week) of “real” flu and flu-like illnesses fell from week 1 to week 2 from an extrapolated 3,000 to 2,850 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. As in Vienna, the peak was also reached in Austria as a whole in week 50 with an incidence of 5,850 cases. Now the positive rate of the samples tested for influenza fell from 46 to 23 percent in a weekly comparison.
On average, 15 out of 100,000 people in Austria die of influenza every year. According to the Ministry of Health, this corresponds to more than 1,000 deaths per year. However, the number varies greatly depending on the virus variant. In the last major wave of influenza in 2016/17, the number of fatalities was estimated at more than 4,000, according to AGES data. 90 percent of those who die from influenza are elderly and children, for whom vaccination is also particularly recommended.
“The flu epidemic is particularly severe this year”: Two children have already died
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