Situation Update: Week 1

Yesterday the website of La Repubblica said that the “second wave” of the swine flu epidemic could be looming, because in the last week the flu cases increased from 75,00 to 78,000 (data of the Ministry of Health). The national incidence has slightly increased from 1.23‰ to 1.30‰. But it isn't clear if the involved virus is still the H1N1 virus or the seasonal one. There are also some people in the hospitals and the death toll has risen to 210. According to the Ministry, the 73% of the deaths are people below 65 years of age. This is one of the unusual, quite disturbing, character of the swine flu, even though it has gone unnoticed by the news media (in the table the deaths in terms of age and region). In the 2006 only the 7% of the flu victims were under 65 years old (Istat data, an unorthodox comparison).

Too many doses

Yesterday the ANSA press agency, by l'Unità newspaper, covered a story about the mistrust of the flu vaccine. According to the poll conducted by Key-Stone, the 97% of Italians refuse to get the vaccine against the swine flu. The 25% refuse all kinds of vaccines, the 24 only the swine flu vaccine, while the 21% were advised by their doctors to not get the shot. More then half of the interviewed (59%) said that they have changed their hygienic habits, usually (in 80% of the cases) buying a disinfectant for the hands.
The vaccination campaign is now very slow. The Ministry of Health said that 821,000 people have been vaccinated, including the 15% of all the health care workers (159,093 people). The available vaccine doses are 10,047,421. The Ministry has also announced that it won't sell the vaccine stock to other countries.