Flu Epidemic Widespread in Hungary

Flu epidemic widespread in Hungary

BUDAPEST, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) — Hungary is contending with a widespread influenza epidemic, which is just medium in intensity and is not triggering too many complications, the chief of the national medical officer’s service said here on Wednesday, MTI news agency reported.

Ferenc Falus told the media that the number of new cases reported in the second week of January was 30,000, twice as many as in the first week of the month. He called on hospitals throughout Hungary to ban visitors, especially from obstetric and neonatal wards.

Agnes Csohan of the National Epidemiology Center reported sharprises in illness in all seven regions of the country, with the number of patients reaching epidemic proportions in five of them.

Istvan Szolnoki, also of the National Epidemiology Center, saidthat 25 percent of the 1.3 million doses of vaccine available freeof charge for elderly and chronically ill patients had still not been spoken for. For lower-risk residents flu shots were availableat cost for anyone with a doctor’s prescription and all primary care physicians were authorized to provide prescriptions on request.

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