Flu strikes 100,000 Swedes in one week

“And these are just the tested cases, those that have sought medical help. But we measure this regularly and it’s therefore possible to compare this figure to the previous weeks’,” said Anders Wallenstein, specialist at the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, (Smittskyddsinstitutet, SMI).

Last week 548 identified new cases of flu were reported in Sweden, compared to 416 the week before.

This is yet again the highest number of reported cases since the first time the number was measured in 1993.

Last week, state epidemiologist Annika Linde told news agency TT that an estimatied 100,000 Swedes were sick with flu during the week of February 12th.

According to Wallenstein this number has most likely risen since last week.

Although the influenza seems fairly evenly spread across the country, this week it has been hitting hardest in the area around Umeå in northern Sweden, as well as on the west coast and in Skåne, in the southernmost part of the country.

Experts believe that the number of people contracting flu will still be rising for a few more weeks although perhaps not as rapidly.

“If you belong to a risk group it may still be an idea to get vaccinated as the increase is so intense right now,” said Wallenstein to TT.