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21 October 2019More aggressive in recent years and with the threat of complications even for healthy people, the flu arrived in advance in Italy with the first serious case at the Udine Hospital. Where in September, a 50-year-old man, with no other medical conditions, was hit by a severe form and due to the bacterial consequences he was intubated and had to face a hospital stay of over 20 days. The Italian Society of Infectious Therapy (Sita) has made the case known and reiterates the importance of universal influenza vaccination. To draw the attention of the infectivologists, together with the earliness, also the characteristics of the patient: a person of 50 years perfectly healthy and without any kind of comorbidity, which therefore does not fall within the categories considered at risk.

"If these are the signals, with a first diagnosis already at the end of September, and if the scenario recorded in Australia and other parts of the world is repeated, we will face a particularly aggressive flu season, with the circulation of very different influenza viruses: H3N2 , as in this case, H1N1, virus B, "says Matteo Bassetti, professor of infectious diseases at the San Martino Hospital in Genoa and President of the Italian Society of Anti-infective Therapy. He adds: "This case suggests that this year's flu, even if it does not have extraordinary numbers like those of winter 2017-18, can also affect healthy people and reinforces the message that influenza vaccination must be universal because there is no category of subjects spared from potential complications ".

The conditions of man, admitted at the end of September at the Clinic of infectious diseases of the Udine Hospital, are being improved. This was announced by the Health Directorate of the Friulian hospital, stating that, at the moment, the patient is no longer intubated. In a note, the Health Department points out that at the end of September the man had been admitted to the clinic for infectious diseases, without comorbidity, suffering from pneumonia and that the presence of influenza virus had been detected. Following a period of important clinical commitment, the Health Director emphasizes, the patient is in the process of clinical improvement.