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November 20, 2002
INTERNATIONAL IMMUNIZATION NEWS
"Scots in New Flu Alert; 700,000 Hit by Symptoms So Far"
Daily Record (UK) (www.dailyrecord.co.uk) (11/19/02) P. 4; Duffy, Judith
According to the Cold and Flu Council, Scotland's current level of flu risk is 10 percent higher than last year, as at least 700,000 people have been stricken with flu-like symptoms, including cough, sore throat, congestion and sniffles. For the first time this winter, the nation has been placed on cold and flu alert, but the chairman of the Cold Flu Council, Professor Ron Eccles, says that there is actually no influenza currently and that most people are suffering from bad colds that often masquerade as the flu. During a major outbreak of influenza in Scotland two years ago, which crippled the national health service, 700 people died. Eccles says, however, that "unless there is a new virus that comes out, we are not going to get an epidemic." He does however, recommend anyone that might be at high risk for influenza should be vaccinated as a precaution.
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