43 million claim to have caught the flu in the last 30 days, says Datafolha

With the recent flu wave in cities across the country, 26% of Brazilians aged 16 and over say they were infected in the last 30 days, equivalent to 43 million people, according to Datafolha.

In the survey, 2,023 people were interviewed by telephone in all Brazilian states, on January 12 and 13 this year. The margin of error is plus or minus two percentage points.

The research was based on the country’s population over 16 years old, which represents 167.8 million people.

Among those who say they have been infected, 19.5% did not get tested to confirm the flu and 6% underwent the test.

Another 71.3% of those interviewed by the institute said they did not have the flu and 3% could not say if they were infected.

Of the people who claimed to have had the flu, 43% sought medical care at a health center or hospital to treat their symptoms, especially the public network (34%). And most of them declared that they had been attended to.

Furthermore, among all those interviewed by Datafolha, 81% said that someone they know had the flu, mainly relatives who live in other houses (58%) or a close friend (57%).

Also among all respondents, 59% said they had some symptoms such as fever, runny nose and cough in the last 30 days.

Altogether, 38% mentioned having had a headache. In the case of cough and stuffy nose, the percentage is the same: 30%. Coryza was cited by 27%, and sore throat, by 25%.

coronavirus

According to the Datafolha survey, 1 in 4 Brazilians aged 16 or over say they have been diagnosed with Covid since the beginning of the pandemic, which represents about 42 million infected people. The number is almost double the total number of officially registered cases in the country.