Netherlands residents with flu symptoms urged to stay home as infections rise

The Netherlands is in its worst flu epidemic in years and the peak of infections is yet to come, Bert Niesters, a professor of medical microbiology at the University of Groningen, told the Telegraaf. He urged people with symptoms not to go to work or school to limit the spread of the virus, and to protect their health.

The flu is really different from a cold, he stressed. “You have muscle pain, sometimes a fever. Then you really need to recover,” Niesters said. “There are known cases of athletes continuing and then dropping dead.”

Last week, 118 out of every 100,000 Netherlands residents went to a doctor with flu symptoms, the public health institute RIVM and research institute Nivel reported on Wednesday. Infections are rising rapidly. A week earlier, 76 flu patients per 100,000 residents visited the GP, compared to 58 a week before that. At the peak of last year’s flu epidemic, 100 flu patients per 100,000 visited the GP.

According to Niesters, the worst is yet to come. “We are probably not even at the peak yet,” he told the newspaper. “A flu epidemic lasts about eight weeks on average and we are only in the fourth week. So halfway through. It is possible that the numbers will be a bit higher next week, but after that, it will typically go down again.”