Romania Expects New Wave Of Swine Flu Infections End January – State Secretary

„Unfortunately, people don’t seem to understand that vaccination is the only form of preventing this flu. Here’s an example: of one hundred people who get infected, 90 have mild forms of the illness, eight have medium to severe forms and only two have severe forms and die. We never know who those two are,” Streinu Cercel told a news conference.

He added the virus thrives due to sudden changes in temperature and a new wave of infections is expected at the end of January and the epidemic is seen less intense by the end of February.

He added 166,000 people were vaccinated against the swine flu in 2009. Romania, which has a population of 22 million, started a vaccination campaign with a locally-made vaccine at the end of November.

Sixty-six people died in the country because of the flu and the number of infections reached 5,870, of which 120 were reported over the past 24 hours.