{"id":396961,"date":"2026-04-17T12:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/396961\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:22:08","slug":"escmid-2026-influenza-underreported-in-winter-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/396961\/","title":{"rendered":"ESCMID 2026: Influenza Underreported in Winter Deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>INFLUENZA cases were missed in 83% of winter deaths with positive postmortem tests across four <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/microbiology-infectious-diseases\/news\/which-disease-seasons-are-hardest-to-forecast\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flu seasons<\/a> in Spain, a new population-based study presented at ESCMID Global 2026 has found.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.emjreviews.com\/respiratory\/news\/overlooked-respiratory-virus-putting-hematology-patients-at-risk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">respiratory virus<\/a> was detected in 11% of winter deaths but only 1.4% were recorded accordingly on death certificates, highlighting a substantial gap between detection and mortality records.<\/p>\n<p>High Rates of Undetected Infection<\/p>\n<p>Researchers analysed 857 deceased persons during periods when deaths were around 12% higher than expected, likely due to seasonal respiratory viruses.<\/p>\n<p>They obtained postmortem swabs within 24 hours of death and tested by PCR for an extensive panel of respiratory viruses.<\/p>\n<p>Of the 94 people who tested positive for influenza, only 41.5% had been hospitalised and a mere 17% had received a diagnosis within 30 days prior to death.<\/p>\n<p>Luc\u00eda Argente-Col\u00e1s, lead author, University Hospital of Navarre, Spain, said: \u201cThese findings were surprising.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe high proportion of infections not detected before death or recorded on death certificates underlines how much we are missing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany people who die from infectious diseases do so at home, where testing is less likely to take place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRespiratory viral infections can also develop suddenly and in some cases, death may occur at an early stage of illness, before medical attention is sought.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reasons Behind Underreporting<\/p>\n<p>In older populations and those with underlying conditions, symptoms can be less pronounced or masked by existing illness, researchers highlighted.<\/p>\n<p>Mortality records often prioritise pre-existing chronic conditions when a respiratory infection contributes to death.<\/p>\n<p>Hence, the viral trigger may go unsuspected and untested, Argente-Col\u00e1s explained.<\/p>\n<p>She added: \u201cWhile detecting a virus postmortem does not automatically imply causation, respiratory viral infections are thought to trigger deterioration and death in older people with chronic comorbidities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn this study, older adults with underlying conditions comprised the large majority of the study population.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these patients, a viral infection may have played a role in death even where the underlying chronic condition appears on the death certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>New Surveillance Approaches<\/p>\n<p>Findings suggested that influenza may play a more significant role in winter mortality than routine surveillance currently captures.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers urged a review of surveillance strategies, particularly for high-risk populations.<\/p>\n<p>Whilst authors acknowledged that routine testing remains essential, they called for new approaches that integrate deaths occurring outside healthcare systems.<\/p>\n<p>Reference <\/p>\n<p>Trobajo-Sanmart\u00edn C et al. Prevalence of influenza and other respiratory viral infections in deceased persons: a population-based observational study over four influenza seasons. Clin Microbiol Infect. 2026;32(3):474-481.<\/p>\n<p>Featured image: abhijith3747 on Adobe Stock<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INFLUENZA cases were missed in 83% of winter deaths with positive postmortem tests across four flu seasons in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[163,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-396961","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}