The Health Bureau (SSM) said yesterday that Macau is still being affected by a peak of influenza infections.
Lei Wai Seng, a clinical director of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, made the remarks when speaking to reporters at the hospital.
Lei said that children have accounted for most of the influenza infections during the current peak.
Lei said that the current flu peak has not started to subside.
Lei also said that the level of influenza infections this year is expected to be more intense than previous years because of a currently lower level of immunity against influenza in the population resulting from the low incidence rate of influenza over the past few years, which was caused by the population-wide wearing of facemasks during the three years of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The local government eased its facemask-wearing guidelines at the end of February.
Lei urged residents to be vaccinated against influenza and those who have come down with flu-like symptoms to wear a facemask in public venues.
64-year-old woman diagnosed with serious flu case
Meanwhile, the Health Bureau has announced that a serious case of influenza was reported at the weekend, a 64-year-old local woman inflicted with chronic diseases.
The woman’s serious case, which was recorded on Saturday, came after two critical cases of influenza were reported on March 31 and Tuesday last week respectively, a six-year-old girl and a 75-year-old man inflicted with chronic diseases.
The woman’s case was announced in an SSM statement on Saturday.
According to the statement, the 64-year-old woman, a retiree, came down with a fever, runny nose and sore throat on Friday when she was also coughing up phlegm. The woman sought treatment at the private Kiang Wu Hospital, where she tested positive for the influenza A virus in her respiratory specimen, the statement said.
In addition, the statement said, a chest X-ray showed that the woman was suffering from double pneumonia, because of which she was diagnosed with influenza A complicated with pneumonia.
Kiang Wu Hospital reported the woman’s serious case to the Health Bureau on Saturday.
The statement said that the woman had not received a 2022-2023 seasonal influenza jab.
As of yesterday, no fatalities caused by influenza have been reported this year.
Lei Wai Seng, a clinical director of the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, talks to reporters at the hospital yesterday. – Photo courtesy of TDM
