Is flu going around in Romania?

Romanian flu activity usually begins rising in late December, peaks between January and March, and tails off by April. The precise window shifts year to year with the dominant influenza subtypes and residual immunity. INSP, the National Institute of Public Health (Institutul Național de Sănătate Publică), publishes weekly influenza updates through its ARI sentinel surveillance programme. Eastern European winters produce peaks broadly similar in timing to neighbouring countries.

INSP describes influenza activity using qualitative phases (baseline, pre-epidemic, epidemic, and post-epidemic) based on ARI consultation rates, laboratory positivity, and hospital indicators. These classifications appear in the weekly respiratory-virus bulletin and are also reported to ECDC for the European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary (ERVISS). The qualitative framing helps clinicians and the public interpret whether pressure on health services is ordinary, elevated, or exceptional.

Romania's influenza surveillance combines an ARI sentinel programme run through primary-care physicians, virological confirmation at INSP's Cantacuzino National Institute for Medico-Military Research and at regional laboratories, and hospital notifications of severe cases. Weekly bulletins integrate these indicators and feed ECDC ERVISS, which places Romania's trajectory alongside Hungary, Bulgaria, and the rest of the EU/EEA.

Romania offers free seasonal influenza vaccination to priority groups defined by the Ministry of Health, including adults aged 65 and above, pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses, residents of long-term-care facilities, and healthcare workers. Vaccines are delivered through family doctors and public vaccination points. INSP reports vaccine-uptake estimates alongside the weekly surveillance bulletin.

Because Romania reports into ECDC ERVISS with harmonised indicators, its weekly flu classification is directly comparable with Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, and the rest of the EU/EEA. Eastern European countries typically see broadly similar peak windows between January and March, with timing variation driven by school calendars and travel patterns. ECDC's side-by-side dashboards make these cross-country comparisons easy to read.