Respiratory infections are spreading in Romania

The number of common cold and flu cases is on the rise in Romania.

Warning: Trying to access array offset on null in /home/web/rri.ro/public/wp-content/themes/rri/template-parts/content.php on line 98
Mihai Pelin, 13.01.2023, 13:50

The number of respiratory infections continues to grow at a fast pace in Romania. The Health Ministry has not declared a flu epidemic because this would involve restrictions like the ones enforced during the Covid pandemic. Instead, a state of epidemic alert for flu was declared. We cannot take measures that will once again block economic and social activity in Romania, health minister Alexandru Rafila said. 15 people died of flu during the current cold season, according to the latest report of the National Public Health Institute. The flu season has started some 3 weeks earlier in 2023, as compared with 2015-2019. Over 100,000 cases of acute respiratory infections were reported in the first week of the year alone, by almost 40% more than in the last week of 2022. Most deaths were caused by the infection with the A-type flu virus, which affected mostly people aged over 65. More than 4,600 cases were caused by clinic flu, most of them in Bucharest, Brasov (centre), Iasi (north-east) and Cluj (north-west). The number of Flurona cases, a co-infection with the flu and Covid viruses, has also been on the rise. Experts urge people to be prudent and monitor their flu symptoms carefully, as respiratory viruses are highly contagious.

An increasing number of people have reported symptoms of common cold, as we get closer to what experts believe to be the peak of the flu season, which is the second half of January. Children are also at risk, as many of them are brought to emergency units with high fever and other symptoms. Family practitioner Iulia Baila has explained that the number of patients who see her for respiratory infections is increasing and that self-medication can only complicate things: “I see more than 50 to patients almost every day, chronic patients included. Limiting the number of patients a doctor can see per day is abnormal even during calm periods, not to mention during epidemics. I have had patients with flu and also a patient, a young woman who is also a nurse, without any chronic conditions, who tested positive for Covid and A-type and B-type flu all at once.

Experts warn that a person can go through more than one cold or flu episodes, and this is more likely to happen with unvaccinated people. Finding medicines in pharmacies is another problem. Antibiotics, anti-viral treatment and other drugs used in respiratory infections are hard to find. Pharmacists say this is the most serious medicine crisis in recent years. (EE)