The influenza epidemic period is likely to end this week, but cases are expected to rise again next month and could be more serious than the current wave, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday
Hospitals reported 106,829 visits for flu-like illness from Oct. 26 to Saturday, which is 4.9 percent fewer than the previous week, and weekly cases are expected to continue falling, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) said.
CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) said that 10.4 percent of last week’s hospital visits were at emergency rooms, which is lower than the epidemic threshold of 11 percent.
Photo: CNA
The centers expect that number to be below the threshold again this week, meeting its requirement for announcing the end of an epidemic period, Tseng said.
Despite the drop in weekly hospital visits, 63 cases of severe flu and nine flu-related deaths were confirmed last week, Guo said, adding that the risk of flu infection with serious complications remains.
A three-year-old girl in northern Taiwan last week developed severe flu symptoms, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said.
The girl — who has inherited metabolic disease and had received a flu vaccine last year, but was unvaccinated this year — developed a high fever and runny nose in the middle of last month, Lin said.
She was taken to a clinic for medical treatment and began taking oral antiviral medication, but her condition worsened and she developed shortness of breath as well as abnormal breathing, so she was taken to an emergency room, he said.
As she had a fever, rapid heartbeat, difficulty breathing and croup, and tested positive for influenza A, she was admitted to an intensive care unit for respiratory distress, he said, adding that she was discharged last week.
As of Monday, more than 4.77 million doses of government-funded flu vaccines had been administered since the start of the current flu season on Oct. 1, and fewer than 2 million doses remain, Tseng said.
With temperatures falling in winter, the next wave of infections is expected to be more serious, and as its takes about two weeks for vaccines to build up enough protective antibodies, people at high risk of developing serious illness from flu should get vaccinated as early as possible, she said.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases are also expected to increase in the winter, so people at higher risk of developing serious illness are also encouraged to get vaccinated, Tseng added.
Aside from the government-funded Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccine that became available on Oct. 1, a protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine by Novavax would be available from Wednesday next week.
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