The flu is a severe condition, being different in its manifestations compared to a cold, for some the disease is even fatal. According to studies by the World Health Organization, the estimated mortality rate caused by seasonal flu can reach 100,000 people. The flu does not manifest itself every year in the same way, the virus undergoing changes, and can only be prevented by taking the annual flu vaccine. The people of Constanța have given quite a lot of importance to the flu vaccine: from September 2022 until now, more than 80,000 people have been vaccinated within the county.
The Directorate of Public Health (DSP) Constanta received and distributed, this season, 83,451 doses of vaccine: 83,151 from the Ministry of Health and 300 from DSP Tulcea. Within Constanța County, 83,839 people have been vaccinated so far, of which 388 from their own source. Thus, the stock at the end of the season is zero.
„At this moment, we are not waiting for any tranche of flu vaccine from the Ministry of Health, because the peak of the epidemic is January and February, and at the moment the numbers are decreasing“he mentioned Tudorel Enethe spokesperson of DSP Constanța.
The Ministry of Health bought, in 2022, 1.5 million doses of flu vaccine, 200,000 more than in 2021, to vaccinate people aged 3 and over, and almost 10,000 more doses for children aged between 6 months and 3 years. All these vaccine doses were distributed to the public health departments, and the last installment was distributed in mid-November last year, according to the Ministry of Health.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, in this cold season, 43 deaths from influenza virus were confirmed in Romania, of which: 30 with influenza virus type A H1 (of which one with co-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and RSV), seven with type A H3 influenza virus (of which two with co-infection with SARS-CoV-2), seven with non-subtyped influenza type A virus (of which three with co-infection with SARS-CoV-2).
Mihaela GIUGLEA
