During the first week of 2025, according to figures provided by Sciensano, there were around 500 consultations due to flu at a general practitioner per 100,000 inhabitants as well as 19 hospitalizations per 1,000 inhabitants. “Figures which put the hospital system under pressure and which therefore push us to take these precautionary measures, continues our interlocutor. These measures are important, especially in an establishment such as a hospital, frequented, as we know, by vulnerable people: elderly people and/or people with heart disease, cancer, etc. and who are much more vulnerable to the flu because their immune defenses are weakened. It’s important to make sure we protect them as much as possible.”
Within the Ottintois clinic, Doctor Wieërs confirms that, as everywhere in Wallonia, there is pressure on services. “We currently have around sixty patients isolated in rooms due to contagiousness, more than half of them due to flu. We manage this, of course, because we are prepared for it, used to it. But we see, in fact, that the number of people infected who are hospitalized for respiratory symptoms, more or less serious depending on the profile of the patients, has increased in recent days in the pulmonology department.
“No more or less aggressive than other years”
There is no question of panic, however, insists our interlocutor. “The message is clear: something is happening but there is no reason to panic since we are faced with a seasonal flu epidemic such as we experience every year at this time. everyone can be reassured, we are not in the presence of a flu with new variants, an H5N1 or an H1N1. Here, it is a classic flu, the peak of which should be reached in three weeks. more or less aggressive than the years previous ones, just perhaps a little ahead of time, the best strategy is therefore to protect yourself and that is why this measure of wearing a mask has been taken with us. Ideally, in order to protect your loved ones. potentially vulnerable, it should also be worn in busy public places (public transport, etc.).
