We speak of an epidemic if for two weeks 58 out of 100,000 people visit their GP with flu-like symptoms and at least 10 percent of them also test positive for the ‘influenza virus’, the flu.
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“You would not yet conclude from the data from the general practitioners that there is an epidemic,” explains Mariëtte Hooiveld of the independent research institute Nivel. According to Hooiveld, this now concerns 14 in every 100,000 people. That is slightly more than in the past period.
Slight increase
Several laboratories in the Netherlands have also reported a slight increase in recent weeks. It is no different in hospitals. In addition, samples for corona from the test streets of the GGD in Amsterdam and Utrecht are examined for flu viruses, and an increase can be seen there too.
“It is therefore very striking that not many people with flu symptoms now go to the doctor. Normally that was always a measure of a flu epidemic,” says Hooiveld.
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There is a good chance that corona is the culprit here. “People who start sniffling may now have themselves tested for corona. If that test is negative, people may think: then I just have to see it through. The threshold to go to the doctor in case of complaints may have changed.”
But it may also still be the case that there are just few flu cases. Nevertheless, RIVM and Nivel announced that ‘a flu epidemic seems to be in sight’. “We are more careful than usual. It is exciting. You are not waiting for a new virus now.”
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