Van Gucht reported earlier this week that the number of flu consultations with general practitioners per hundred thousand inhabitants per week is now well over fifty. This means that the threshold for a flu epidemic has been exceeded.
It is still unclear whether the flu season will get worse, but Van Gucht expects many flu cases, because a new subvariant of H3N2 is circulating this winter.
It Department of Care and GP association Medical House announced last summer that vaccination against the flu was recommended between mid-October and the end of November. Now it is the end of December, does this mean that it is too late for those who still want a flu shot?
Is vaccination against the flu still useful now?
“If you get a vaccine, in some places those vaccines are no longer available,” he said Steven Van Gucht in ‘The World Today’ on Radio 1.
“But if it is still available, it is still worth getting vaccinated. It is quite late, we would rather see that in October or November, but in principle it still makes sense.”
“Most flu cases have yet to come. I expect the peak to be somewhere in January. After Christmas and New Year it will probably increase much more sharply.”
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Does this vaccine help against this flu?
“There is new data from it European Center for Disease Prevention and Control who have already made the calculation based on a number of other European countries.”
“And then you see that you get about 50% protection. Thanks to the flu shot, you halve the risk of flu. That is comparable to other years.”
