From Autumn to Spring, 10 percent of Polish society will fall ill and 30 percent of Poles are at risk for swine flu, according to prediction from the National Medicines Institute.

“Basically, 3.5-12 million Poles could get swine flu. But, it won’t happen all in one day but it is rather a matter of months,” states Dr. Pawel Grzesiowski, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases Prevention and Nosocomial Infections at the National Medicines Institute in Warsaw.

Those most at risk to the A/H1N1, according to Grzesiowski, are pregnant women, children combating long-term diseases, healthy people between the ages 14-49 years of age and those older than 50.

“Currently, in Europe, one sick person infects 1.5-2 healthy people. It is worse in the US where one sick person infects over 2 healthy people. It could get worse in Poland when children go back to school and it will be easier to pass the virus along,” claims Grzesiowski.

Statistically, three in 1,000 people die annually of the common flu in Poland. In England, statistics show that one in one thousand people have died of swine flu. (mmj)