Influenza

At least 200 to 300 patients are admitted to intensive care units in Istanbul daily as cold weather exacerbates viral infections, leading to a serious shortage of beds, experts warn, calling for enhanced health care resources and vaccination efforts to combat the surge.

An administrative inquiry has been ordered into the death of a 15-month-old boy at the Bodossakeio General Hospital of Ptolemaida, northern Greece, last week, to determine why the child did not receive specialist care earlier. 

The infant was rushed to Ptolemaida's hospital by its parents on the morning of New Year's Day with a fever and diagnosed with the flu. 

The seasonal spike in viruses, which became more pronounced during the holidays, has, as anticipated, increased the pressure on Greece's hospitals. Driven by Covid-19, the epidemic wave of viruses - including influenza, RSV, rhinoviruses and adenoviruses - is expected to peak in the next two weeks.

The week before Christmas saw a sharp increase in cases of Covid-19, flu or flu-like symptoms and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infections, the National Organization for Public Health (EODY) has said.

With a surge in viral infections seen amid the ongoing cold and damp winter weather, an infectious diseases specialist has warned of a "virus potpourri," as the number of patients in emergency units with upper respiratory tract infections has doubled in recent days. 

As the weather gets colder, influenza cases have been on the rise lately in the country, with patients complaining of prolonged coughs, bronchitis and recurring infections, filling almost all outpatient clinics recently.

For now, it is known that it is a mysterious pneumonia that is once again ravaging the country.
Beijing says that no new virus is to blame for the chaos, and officials have told people to wear masks, social distance and stay at home if they don't feel well, while health workers attribute the increase in cases to the flu and other common diseases.

China's health ministry announced on Sunday that the recent upsurge in respiratory illnesses, which has captured the World Health Organization's attention, is attributed to the influenza virus and other established pathogens rather than an unidentified novel virus.

Due to the fact that even the first news about the coronavirus from China were vague and mysterious, and that no one could have guessed that a pandemic would occur, the news that a virus that attacks the lungs appeared in China and that caused hospitalization of large number of children went off like a bomb.

New cases of both Covid-19 and influenza dropped over the week of June 12-18 in Greece, according to the weekly report by the National Public Health Organisation (EODY), published on Thursday.