[Capture News] Flu "It's not the peak yet"... Quad-demic gripping South Korea

After the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more people are wearing masks again in recent years.

This is because the number of flu patients is reaching a new high every day in eight years.

The number of patients with suspected flu symptoms in the first week of January this year was 99.8 per 1,000 outpatients, up 13.7 times from four weeks ago.

Adolescents are leading the trend with 177.4 per 1,000 people and 161.6 children.

The reason why flu cases continue to rise is because both types of viruses are circulating at the same time.

They are H1N1 and H3N2, both of which are type A flu, but as they are other viruses, you can catch them twice.

[Ji Young-mi / Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Since very few people were infected with influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic...There are a lot of people in the community who haven't been infected...Currently, two types of influenza A-H1N1 and A-H3N2 are prevalent at the same time (caused by etc.)

On top of that, the number of patients with other respiratory infections is also increasing.

The number of COVID-19 patients, which peaked in August last year and has been decreasing, has also been on the rise since late December,
RSV, a respiratory syncytial virus that causes pneumonia, especially in infants and toddlers due to coughing
and high fever, has also increased for nine consecutive weeks, but has decreased slightly this year.

In addition, HMPV and human metapneumovirus, which are popular in China, are also spreading rapidly in Korea, increasing 2.2 times in two weeks.

Experts believe that respiratory diseases have not yet peaked.

The number of infections is expected to hit a peak in the next few weeks, and the Lunar New Year holiday, when the amount of movement increases nationwide, is at its peak.

If you haven't been vaccinated yet, it's better to get it now.

I'm Yum Hyewon of YTN.

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