The spread of influenza and other respiratory viruses that hit Spain this Christmas has had a devastating impact on mortality. If the expected death toll in January was 43,686, the final death toll for the month was 47,554, which is an increase of 3,856 more than expected, or nearly 10%, according to excess mortality records. In a daily post on the Linkedin social network, Juan Abarca, director of Spain’s Royal Hospital, lamented the figures and the lack of knowledge about health care as the pandemic takes a toll on Spain. More than 120,000 lives were lost.
On January 22, “LA RAZÓN” reported that the latest bulletin data from the Acute Respiratory Infection Surveillance System for the second week of January released by the Carlos I Health Institute showed that the virus was consolidating its downward trend for the second consecutive week.
Thus, in the last week analyzed, January 8-14, the global primary acute respiratory infection case rate remained stable at 926 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. In terms of age, there was a slight decrease among young adults aged 15 to 64, and a slight increase among children between 1 and 14 years old. In hospitals, the global incidence rate fell from 35 to 28 cases per 100,000 in the second week of 2024. The report also mentioned that the epidemic will peak in the week of December 25.
But the flu is A virus that has a significant impact on the health of vulnerable populations, Health authorities therefore insist on vaccination.One of the most relevant scientific works on the analysis of the short-term impact of influenza on mortality was published in the journal New England Journal of Medicine In 2018, a link between the virus and the incidence of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) within the first seven days of infection was confirmed. The main conclusions of this work are, The incidence of AMI is 5-6 times higher in the first week after influenza infection (A or B; although the proportion of B is higher)No excessive risk was found compared to previous and subsequent years.
Well, according to The latest Daily All-Cause Mortality Monitoring Report (Momo) data reported by this newspaper on January 22 has shown that the number of deaths in Spain increased from the expected number of 355 deaths in the week of January 10 to 1,482 on the 17th . In other words, more than 1,000 people died within 7 days, exceeding the expected death toll during the peak period of the flu.. Eventually, that number jumped to 3,856.