It is estimated that ten percent of Poles are in danger of contracting flu.
During the first week of October, there were over 5.800 cases of flu in Poland and more are expected as flu virus is particularly active in autumn and winter. On average, every day two in 100,000 people contract flu or flu-like virus and it is estimated that ten per cent of the society may suffer from swine flu.
So far there have been 165 cases of A/H1N1 in Poland. The virus has been rather mild and no one has died yet, nevertheless Poles are afraid of contracting the new strain of flu.
In order to protect themselves from the illness, some decide to take anti flu vaccines. However, it is still a minority. Anti flu vaccines are not particularly popular in Poland. In the last season only 5.2 per cent of Polish society had anti flu injections.
Swine flu vaccine is not available in Poland. Health Ministry, which is still negotiating its price, intends to buy 4 million vaccines for people from a high risk group, i.e. pregnant women, people affected by chronic diseases and health care employees. (mg)