Ten people with swine flu die in CzechRep in past week

The Czech National Reference Laboratory for Flu has registered 1207 people who got infected with the H1N1 virus so far. In the past week 80 new cases of infection were confirmed.

Vaccination against swine flu started a month ago, on November 23. Some 40,000 doses of the vaccine have been applied so far.

Roman Prymula, head of the Czech vaccinological association, said though most swine flu cases are not serious, the number of highly serious cases is increasing in Czech hospitals.

Most of those who died with swine flu were people from the risk groups to whom the state offers vaccination for free, Prymula said.

He said the problem was that a number of patients do not want the vaccine, partly because some Czech doctors stated that they would not get vaccinated themselves.

Prymula said experts clearly recommend the vaccination.

He added that the risk of the vaccination threatening one's life is a hundred or thousand times lower than that of swine flu.

Author: ČTK
www.ctk.cz