The flu epidemic has started to subside, but the tension in hospitals has increased. Society

Flu infection, which was skyrocketing in the last fortnight of December, has now reached its peak. In the first week of the year, there was a slight decline in incidents compared to the previous week. But, if citizens have learned anything during the pandemic, it’s that a surge in infections has been followed by another spike in hospitalizations. And this is what is happening now: admissions are increasing and pressure on hospitals is increasing.

For all respiratory infections, the Spanish average rose from 966.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 935.1, representing a 3.2% decrease, according to data published Thursday by the Health Institute Charles III.

This decline is most evident in flu, the virus most widespread this season. Sentinel health centers (which represent a representative sample from which general data are drawn) detected 387.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, a decline of 10%. However, Covid has increased slightly to a rate of 98.8 cases per 100,000, up 6%. Hospitalizations for all respiratory viruses rose 9.1% to 33.5 admissions per 100,000 residents.

Both the distribution and trend of cases vary greatly by region. Castilla-La Mancha, despite a slight decrease, remains the community with the highest incidence of respiratory viruses (1,691.3 per 100,000). Aragon, where they are rising, is now in second place (1,338.3), ahead of the Valencian Community (1,318.9), where they are falling.

It is important to observe the trends as it depends on them whether communities have to make masks mandatory in health centres, as the health ministry ordered on Wednesday, or whether they can proceed with a simple recommendation. For this, Health imposed that they have to make a series of reduction incidents for two consecutive weeks.

Andalusia, Asturias, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla y León, Extremadura, Galicia and Madrid are the autonomies in which the incidence has already decreased in the first week of the year. If this trend continues next week, they may make masks more flexible in health centers and hospitals. Both the Basque Country and Melilla declined for two weeks in a row, but Carlos III has not updated the data.

The Euskadi government has imposed a mask requirement, but has announced that it is going to appeal against the Health Ministry’s order because, according to the complaint, there was no prior agreement from the Interregional Council of the National Health System. Nor was there any hearing of the autonomous communities before taking this decision.

Overcome chaos in health centers

The data published this Thursday, in general, shows the situation of health centers, which no longer presents the collapse that was observed during Christmas. In addition to the reduction in cases, two other factors intervene: on the one hand, they are recovering employees who were on leave, giving them more resources to face the respiratory virus epidemic. On the other hand, according to Lorenzo Armenteros, spokesman for the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG), patients no longer come with “normal” symptoms, apart from the fact that the use of masks has become normal.

“There is more fear of coming to the centers and there are more telephone consultations about respiratory procedures. Information from the media has been more effective than institutional information,” warns Armenteros, who assures, however, that this is something that does not happen in emergencies, which keep the level of care very stressful. .

This statement is confirmed by José Manuel Fandino, member of the board of directors of the Spanish Society of Emergency Medicine (SEMES): “It depends on the communities. They all have average historical care demand data, but there are some, like Navarra, where hospitalization demand due to flu has increased by about 20% (peak is expected in about 7 to 20 days). And others like Galicia, with a decline of 10%-15% compared to previous weeks.

Fandino explains that now what health workers call “evacuation of patients pending admission” is felt more strongly, that is, those waiting in the emergency room to be transported to their destination floors and services. If this is not addressed, emergency circuits are “not fully operational” and patients do not have “adequate conditions of dignity and privacy”. “It’s not that the emergency services are saturated, what is saturated is the hospitals,” he concluded.