CCTV News: On January 26, the National Health Commission held a press conference to introduce the seasonal solar terms and health. A reporter asked: The current growth rate of respiratory infectious diseases such as influenza has slowed down. What are the latest monitoring results? When will this season of flu season end? Is it still necessary to get vaccinated?

Chen Cao, a researcher at the Institute of Virology Diseases of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, introduced that according to the monitoring data in the third week of 2025, the proportion of influenza-like cases in sentinel hospitals in northern and southern provinces across the country, that is, the proportion of influenza cases to the total number of outpatient and emergency cases in the total number of outpatient and emergency cases has decreased compared with the previous week. The positive rates of tests such as influenza virus and Mycoplasma pneumoniae continue to decline. Other respiratory pathogens such as the novel coronavirus are also at low epidemic levels. Overall, the intensity of activity of respiratory pathogens such as influenza has decreased nationwide, and the level of respiratory infectious diseases has dropped to a certain extent. No new infectious diseases caused by unknown pathogens have been found. According to the results of previous monitoring, most of the epidemic periods of influenza in my country in winter and spring are from November to February or March of the following year, and are still in a seasonal epidemic period. The disease control department will continue to monitor closely and release monitoring results in a timely manner to protect everyone's health.

At the same time, individuals should also maintain good hygiene habits, such as wearing masks throughout the process of medical treatment, and wearing masks is recommended in crowded places and when taking public transportation; washing hands in time or disinfecting hands after contacting public facilities. In addition, households and public places should also be cleaned and disinfected. If there are elderly people or patients with low immune function at home, you should pay attention to preventing external pathogenic factors from being brought into the family, and take personal protection when visiting relatives and friends in nursing homes.

Chen Cao said that it is still very necessary to get the flu vaccine now. Timely and full-time influenza vaccination can effectively protect individual infections and reduce the occurrence of severe and complications. It is particularly important for high-risk groups such as the elderly, children and patients with chronic diseases. It should be noted that it takes 2-4 weeks after influenza vaccination to produce antibody levels with protective effects. Therefore, the earlier the vaccination, the better. If you and your family have not been vaccinated yet, please go to a nearby vaccination site as soon as possible to make an appointment for consultation.