Influenza cases increasing rapidly in eastern Austria

The number of influenza cases is rising rapidly in eastern Austria. Doctors are reporting a big increase in Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria and Styria. Michael Kunze from the Institute for Social Medicine says that there have been 15,300 new cases in the first two weeks of January. He adds that the peak of the outbreak should occur within two-to-three weeks. Older people, the chronically ill and the young are especially in danger from the flu. Vaccination against the flu is the best means of preventing it, but relatively few Austrians bother to obtain it. A poll at the beginning of 2007 showed that only 18 per cent of Austrians had been vaccinated against the flu during the first part of the 2006/2007 flu season. Other means of prevention are frequent washings of one's hands and the avoidance of shaking hands with others. A face mask is also useful in crowded places like undergrounds. Kunze notes that it is not too late to benefit from vaccination against influenza.

Source:www.wienerzeitung.at