Newly appointed minister

Today Professor Ferrucio Fazio has been appointed to the newly created role of Minister of Health. He has received strong  support by his party's MPs, but also by  medical associations and business unions. In the last months he managed to prepare for the pandemic of swine flu, and many people owe that to him.
Things are going quite well,  especially in North Italy. In the southern regions, in Campania, Puglia and Calabria there's the highest death toll.
Total deaths 149
Abruzzo 3
Basilicata 1
Calabria 16
Campania 32
Emilia Romagna 10
Lazio 14
Liguria 4
Lombardia 9
Marche 1
Molise 3
Piemonte 8
Puglia 19
Sicilia 11
Toscana 4
Umbria 5
Veneto 8
P.A. Bolzano 1

Flu toll above 100

The swine flu has came to its maximum in Italy, but the deaths are still increasing. The Ministry of Health has said that the deaths are 101 (27 in the Campania region). It said also that 494,915 people has been vaccinated, out of 5,030,851 available doses. More than 131,000 health care workers have been vaccinated, more or less 13%. Italian mass media have covered about a two years old  child who died in Lecce, Puglia region. Apparently, the child was healthy, before becoming infected.

Flu peaked in Italy, maybe

As the death toll soars to 85, the swine flu is still in the news. Today the Italian Deputy Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio has said that the vaccine is still effective, even though the virus has mutated. According to Fazio, it's likely that the flu pandemic has already peaked in Italy, infecting only some milions of people. Nevertheless, it's crucial that people in the high risk group get the vaccine, said Fazio. Gianni Rezza, Director of Infectious Desease Department of Istituto superiore di sanità, has confirmed that people need to stay alert and get vaccinated (if at-risk). According to the Ministry, more than 300,000 people have got the vaccine, out of almost 4 milions of doses available.

Swine flu at its peak: Week 46

Maybe the swine flu in Italy has reached its peak. Today InfluNet, the Italian surveillance network, has released updated datas for week 46, from November 9 to November 15. The incidence is 1.253%, a bit more than last week (1.227%). In the island of Sardinia  there's still one of the lowest incidences of flu cases (0.69%). The highest rate is again in Marche region (4.197%), followed by Abruzzo (3.492%), and Emilia-Romagna (1.917%), all in central Italy.

Swine flu not so harmless

According to the Italian Minister of Health the fatal cases of the swine flu are 34 (0.0043%), people in intensive care 108 (0.013%). There are no official data about the age of the victims, but Ansa press agency reports that a large part of the fatal cases are young (maybe 90%). In the past days the Deputy Health Minister Ferruccio Fazio kept repeating that seasonal flu causes each year 8,000 victims, so the death rate of the swine flu is much less of the one of the seasonal flu. But is this correct? Really the swine flu is so mild? The Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) has published data about the causes of death in 2006. The flu killed 298 people (22 in people under age 65), and all the pneumonia 6,749.
Actually, the swine flu is going to change the mortality pattern, especially for young people.

New strain, old problem

It's becoming clear that many troubles caused by the pandemic in Italy are actually old problems of the national primary care service. For example, many local doctors don't know what to do, as Corriere della Sera has reported. They haven't been informed very well, but this lack of communication and technical updates from health authorities is often true for other illness.
Another problem is that it's difficult to ask advice to local doctors, even by phone call. So people rush to the emergency room (again Corriere della Sera). But this is a common occurrence in Italy, where it's hard to get a home visit by doctors.
And there's so much difference in flu vaccine campaign in the country, because each regional government has a different approach with a wide range of efficiency. If the strain of the flu virus is  new, the problems look old.