Among 1,000 Suspected Influenza Patients, 15→17.3 Cases
Flu Rate Among 13-18-Year-Old Adolescents Rises 40% in One Week
[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] As the government is discussing lifting the indoor mask-wearing mandate, one of the major COVID-19 prevention measures, the number of flu patients during the winter season has been increasing for seven consecutive weeks.
According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on the 10th, the proportion of patients showing suspected influenza symptoms (influenza-like illness rate) from the 27th of last month to the 3rd of this month (week 49 of 2022) was 17.3 per 1,000 outpatients, an increase of 2.3 (16.3%) from 15.0 the previous week. This is the highest figure this year and 3.5 times the 4.9 threshold for influenza epidemic in the 2022-2023 season.
The influenza-like illness rate has been rising for seven consecutive weeks since the second week of October (October 9-15), increasing from 6.2 to 7.6, 9.3, 11.2, 13.2, 13.9, 15.0, and 17.3 per 1,000 outpatients.
The KDCA operates an influenza surveillance system targeting 200 medical institutions nationwide and classifies individuals with sudden fever over 38 degrees Celsius accompanied by cough or sore throat as influenza-like illness (suspected cases).
Patients continue to occur across all age groups, but recently, the epidemic is spreading rapidly especially among adolescents aged 13-18 and adults aged 19-49.
Compared to the previous week, the influenza-like illness rate decreased in infants aged 0 (7.7 to 4.0) and children aged 1-6 (14.2 to 13.2), but among adolescents aged 13-18, it increased by 16.2 (38.7%) from 41.9 to 58.1. In particular, for the 13-18 age group, the rate surged more than threefold from 18.8 in week 45 to 58.1 in week 49 within a month, showing the highest epidemic trend among all age groups.
The influenza-like illness rate for adults aged 19-49 also sharply increased from 16.5 in week 48 to 24.3 in week 49, while children aged 7-12 saw a slight decrease from 33.1 to 29.0 during the same period, but the number of patients remains high.
As the number of new COVID-19 cases, which had plateaued for a while, begins to rise again, concerns about a 'twindemic'?the simultaneous epidemic of flu and COVID-19?are growing.
From the 3rd to the 9th, the number of new COVID-19 cases was 402,890, which is lower than the 424,704 cases from the previous week (September 26 to October 2), but the daily new cases from the 5th to the 9th have been continuously increasing compared to the same days of the previous week.
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