Doctors announced the date for improvement of the epidemiological situation regarding influenza and ARVI

At a press conference held in Izvestia, epidemiologists said that a decline in seasonal diseases cannot be expected until April. According to the Deputy Director for Research of the Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Gorelov, Russians are now experiencing a season of respiratory infections. After the expected decrease in the number of diseases during the long New Year holidays (but this was an “imaginary” decline, since people simply did not go to doctors on these days), a traditional post-New Year increase is observed. But the current epidemiological situation is no different from last year. Now more than 900 thousand cases of respiratory diseases are recorded every week, and influenza A dominates among them. Influenza A will remain with Russians for another 3-4 weeks, then influenza B will prevail. “And it is influenza B that traditionally indicates that the epidemic has begun to rise decline, and usually this process is completed by mid-May,” Gorelov added.

Elena Malinnikova, head of the Department of Virology of the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education of the Russian Ministry of Health, in turn, noted that, at least until April, we are still in this busy period and may face an unforeseen increase in the number of influenza and ARVI diseases, so doctors still have a lot of work to do.

“We are now at the very equator of the epidemic season for the incidence of influenza and ARVI; there may be rises in March,” she said.