Among the patients of the Victor Babeş Hospital in Timişoara affected by the flu are a pair of twin babies only one month old. The hospital unit announces that half of the patients with respiratory infections who arrived at the Outpatient Clinic in the last few days have been hospitalized.
Recently, patients with moderate and even severe forms of the disease arrive at the Infectious Diseases and Pneumophthisiology Outpatient Clinic Dr. Victor Babeș. The flu is generally manifested by fever, headache or muscle aches, sweating, chills, eye pain, sore throat, loss of appetite. The condition is among the most contagious diseases.
“Influenza manifests itself sporadically. In the last 4 months, a significant increase in respiratory infections was recorded at the Dr. Victor Babeş Timişoara Infectious Diseases and Pneumophthisiology Hospital. Thus, from the beginning of October 2022 until now, a quarter of hospitalized patients were with respiratory viruses. In January 2023, 11% of patients consulted in the Emergency Room had the flu, a value that increased to 17% in the first week of February.
Almost half of those who came for investigations in the last week, and who had the flu, were hospitalized. They presented more severe clinical forms or various risk factors: age under one year, prematurity, congenital anomalies, neuromuscular diseases, febrile convulsions in the antecedents. In the case of adults, we are talking about chronic cardiovascular or pulmonary pathology, neoplasms, diabetes or patients on dialysis,” said Ș.L. Ruxandra Laza, primary infectious diseases doctor, Hospital for Infectious Diseases and Pneumophthisiology Dr. Victor Babeș Timișoara.
Currently, 11 children between the ages of one month and four years are hospitalized in the infectious disease wards of the Victor Babeș Hospital. “The patients usually come for a consultation in the Guard Room, when the fever and cough persist, they do not subside, and this under the conditions in which the usual antipyretics and antitussives are administered. Digestive phenomena followed by dehydration also occur in some of them. In the case of elderly people, there is also a decompensation of the associated diseases, but also a marked asthenia. The most common cases of respiratory viruses were with influenza virus type A and B. Respiratory viruses, like influenza, rank first as an acute illness morbidity in the cold season. The main mode of transmission of respiratory viruses is the air, through fine particles in suspension, which are responsible for both the acute infection and the aggravation of the pre-existing pathology”, concluded Ș.L Ruxandra Laza.
Precautions are still highly recommended by doctors. Such as avoiding crowded places, flu vaccination, ventilation of rooms or wearing a mask.
