Via The Standard: Concern as flu season comes early. Excerpt:
The fight against human swine flu (H1N1) in Beijing is getting "serious" after about 200 new cases were confirmed in each of the past two days, a mainland health official said.
As of Monday, there were 5,800 confirmed cases of swine flu in the capital. There have been 33,000 confirmed cases in the mainland with two deaths.
Fang Laiying, head of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, told China Daily that this year's winter flu wave has come early and warned that the combination of pandemic and seasonal flu may result in a record number of cases this year.
Flu season usually stretches from December to January.
The number of flu cases this month is almost three times the total recorded in Beijing in October last year.
In Hong Kong, meanwhile, the number of swine flu cases has dropped for a third week running, but officials are not letting their guard down as they brace for the winter flu peak.
As of October 21, a total of 31,211 people have been confirmed to have swine flu, their age ranging from 10 days to 95 years, with a median age of 14. Thirty-seven had died as of Monday.
Hong Kong began a seasonal flu vaccination program on October 19, two weeks earlier than scheduled so as to have enough lead time for a mass vaccination program against the swine flu pandemic.
As of Monday, around 6,300 children and 21,000 seniors have received seasonal flu jabs under the expanded vaccination subsidy scheme.
The central government has said it plans to inoculate 5 percent of the population, or 65 million people, against swine flu by year's end. So far, 300,000 people have received the vaccination.
