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A
pandemic of swine flu isn't a constant topic of the mass media in
Krakow any more and the illness itself has made little impact
on the city to date. Possibly the increased public awareness
has sufficed to prevent the outbreak of an
epidemic.
Official
data regarding the occurrence of flu in Krakow and Malopolska
region.
Poland has instituted
various precautionary measures to safeguard the country
against the pandemic of flu caused by A/H1N1 strain of the
virus. Among other steps, the authorities mandated that
doctors report every suspicious case of influenza. Reported cases are tested for the A/H1N1 strain.
Since January 1st, 2011 only
165 patients have been confirmed to contract A/H1N1 influenza
in the entire Malopolska province. Yet 15 of those cases
proved fatal.
The
spread of this season's common flu.
As regards common influenza in
Malopolska province this year the number of reported cases was
4,383 in the first week of 2011, 10, 599 in the second week of
January, 13,802 in the third week, and 11,680 in the fourth
week. This corresponds with
the peak of the disease a year ago. In February 2011 the
incidence of flu dwindled steadily so just 4,512 cases were
recorded in the third week of the month.
The 2011 strain of common
flu is relatively benign and only 256 patients required
hospitalization in the first three weeks of the year.
Vaccination
against flu in Krakow region.
No vaccine against the
A/H1N1 strain of influenza (swine flu) has been made available
in Poland to date.
Year ago 3.5 percent of the
entire population of the Malopolska region opted to be
vaccinated against common flu compared to 5.2 percent in whole
of Poland. Current figures concerning inoculation against flu haven’t been published yet.
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