Last week, research institute Nivel reported a slightly higher figure. At that time, 70 residents with flu-like symptoms per 100,000 people referred to a general practitioner. At the time Nivel spoke of ‘a sharp increase’ compared to the previous weeks. Nivel now speaks of a ‘continuation of the flu epidemic’.
The Nivel reports that the flu virus is currently found in considerably more samples taken by doctors from patients with ailments. Of the samples taken last week, the flu virus (the flu) was found in nearly half.
There has been an official flu epidemic in the Netherlands for two weeks. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) generally speaks of such an epidemic when more than 58 out of 100,000 people go to the general practitioner with ailments reminiscent of the flu and 10 percent of the samples tested contains influenza virus.
Scabies goes down
Today, the professional organization for the health sector NU’91 and the trade union FNV announced that the current epidemic is leading to “a lot of absenteeism” of health personnel. At the same time, there is more work due to flu infections among people already cared for by healthcare professionals. “However, it’s not the case that all the alarm bells are ringing,” a spokesman said.
The number of scabies is decreasing. Over the past week, doctors have seen about 25 patients for every 100,000 people, the lowest number in about seven weeks. Last week, 40 out of 100,000 people had scabies.
