TMCnet News
Flu epidemic begins in Austria: medical expertsVIENNA, Jan 22, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Austrian medical experts said Tuesday the country is "at the beginning of a flu epidemic" with 9,900 new influenza and flu cases in Vienna alone last week. In the previous week, 8,900 cases had been reported, and health authorities in the cities of Graz and Innsbruck, as well as the Austria-wide influenza network, are reporting similar spikes in the numbers of patients. Franz X. Heinz from the Department of Virology at the Medical University of Vienna said the majority of samples taken from patients are carrying the A(H1N1) virus, a virus of the same type as that during the swine flu pandemic of 2009 and 2010. Heinz said the 2013 influenza vaccine was a perfect fit for the current strains of flu, and that people "can still get vaccinated," APA news agency reported. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] |