Japan is experiencing the largest flu outbreak in the last 25 years.

The strongest flu outbreak in Japan in 25 years has occurred

Japan has recorded the largest flu outbreak in the last 25 years. During the last week of December, the flu was detected in 317,800 people, which is a record high since monitoring began in 1999. This figure is three times higher than the 104,600 cases recorded during the same period in 2023. This was reported by Barron's.

The data was collected by the Japanese Ministry of Health, which conducts regular monitoring of disease incidence in 5,000 medical clinics across the country. The flu outbreak is observed during the winter season, when illness rates traditionally rise, but the current increase significantly exceeds normal levels.

Flu incidence has also been recorded in other countries

Moreover, epidemiologists note that similar trends have been observed in other countries in recent weeks, including France and the United Kingdom, where significant spikes in flu incidence have been recorded. In 2023, Australia reported over 350,000 flu cases, marking a record since 2019.

Hospitals in the United Kingdom are struggling to cope with the increasing number of patients. In some cases, patients are forced to wait more than two days for emergency medical assistance as hospitals are unable to deal with the influx of flu patients.

It is worth noting that in Kyiv, medical professionals identified the first laboratory-confirmed case of human metapneumovirus (HMPV). This was reported by the Kyiv City Center for Disease Control and Prevention of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. An official representative of the European Commission, Eva Grncyrova, stated that the spread of the human metapneumovirus on a pandemic scale has been confirmed in the European Union.