Flu cases decreasing, epidemic over in two weeks, Romanian health minister says

Romania’s health minister Alexandru Rafila recently said that the number of flu cases in the country is decreasing, with a drop of 25% just in the past week, and that the flu epidemic will end in two weeks.

There were 100,000 new cases of respiratory viruses and flu cases in the last week, compared to 140,000 a week earlier, according to Rafila.

"We have accurately presented the data on viruses and as we estimated, the number of cases has begun to decrease. It decreased by 25% in the last week, a significant drop from almost 140,000 to 100,000. We expect this trend to continue, and with it, serious cases or deaths will decrease as well," the minister said, cited by News.ro.

Looking at the number of cases, Alexandru Rafila said that he believes that the flu epidemic will end in approximately two weeks. "We are still in an epidemic, but this rapid decrease clearly represents a trend that will lead to the elimination of the epidemic situation in two to three weeks. I believe that in two weeks, we can talk about the end of the flu epidemic," he stated.

Last month, hospitals in Romania were filling up with flu cases, and there was a shortage of some generic drugs used to treat respiratory infections, especially those in children. Earlier this month, the European Commission allowed Romania to temporarily halt the distribution of antibiotics and antipyretics outside of the country.

When asked about the drug situation at the moment, Rafila said that there is no shortage, but that consumption of drugs is higher than usual. "There is higher consumption of medications than usual. If we refer to medications for respiratory viruses, we have managed to obtain the agreement of the European Commission to limit exports of anti-inflammatory and antibiotic molecules for a period of 3 months. We do not currently have any signs of a problem related to the supply of medications," he explained.

(Photo source: Ministerul Sanatatii on Facebook)