RIVM recently started receiving weekly data on the number of people admitted to ICU due to a respiratory infection. This is a significant expansion of surveillance for respiratory infections in the Netherlands. It offers a clearer overview of respiratory infections that result in severe illness.
A respiratory infection usually goes away on its own, but some people may become so seriously ill that they need to be admitted to hospital. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people became seriously ill from a respiratory infection in such high numbers that hospitals were overburdened. Hospitals can also come under major pressure during the seasonal flu epidemic. While RIVM sometimes receives indications of these issues from hospitals, there has been a lack of concrete and reliable figures at the national level.
Timely updates on the number of people admitted to hospital due to a respiratory infection are important in order to have an accurate understanding of the spread and severity of respiratory infections. The data can help in deciding whether to take steps to curb the spread of infections in order to reduce pressure on hospitals, if that becomes necessary.
Data on ICU admissions
RIVM monitors respiratory infections in the Netherlands by collecting, analysing and interpreting trends in various data. This is called surveillance. For example, the Infection Radar survey shows what symptoms people have. Primary care data shows how many people go to the GP for respiratory symptoms. However, RIVM does not know how many people become so ill from a respiratory infection that they need to be admitted to hospital. RIVM recently started receiving weekly data on the number of people admitted to ICU due to a respiratory infection.
The data is collected by the National Intensive Care Evaluation (NICE) Foundation, working with the Dutch Society for Intensive Care (NVIC) and the participating intensive care units. Starting on 3 September 2025, RIVM will be posting weekly updates on its website, accompanying the other data on the current situation regarding respiratory infections in the Netherlands.
Data on admissions to nursing wards
The ICU only admits the very seriously ill patients that are in hospital due to a respiratory infection. Besides that, it is also important to know how many people are admitted to hospital nursing wards due to a respiratory infection. To achieve a better understanding of those figures, we are working with Dutch Hospital Data (DHD). The data on admissions to nursing wards is not yet available.