Guest MonkeySee Posted April 5, 2009 Posted April 5, 2009 BANGKOK: -- Flu affects 70,000-900,000 Thais a year, and 12,000-75,000 of them are hospitalised with complications such as lung disease and pneumonia, the Public Health Ministry said yesterday. Noting that the elderly were 11 times more prone to lung disease from flu than others, Deputy Public Health Minister Manit Nopamornbodi said flu shots would reduce prevalence among the elderly by 50 per cent and among those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease fourfold. He told a vaccine-campaign launch in Buri Ram's Lahan Sai district that the ministry and the National Health Security Office had prepared 1.79 million doses of flu vaccine this year for those with seven chronic illnesses. Vaccinations will be given from July 1 to August 31. The entitled were those suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, heart disease, stroke, liver failure, diabetes as well as cancer patients on chemotherapy, he said, the vaccines would also be given to the health officials deemed at great exposure to flu. He went on that 400,000 doses of vaccine to prevent bird flu in fowls were also prepared. Disease Control Department deputy chief Prapa Tangsrikiatkul said that the flu strain in Thailand was not yet found to mutate and that the vaccine could prevent three flu strains at 70-90 per cent. He added that the ministry had vaccinated 520,000 at-risk people last year and it was so effective that only four deaths of flu complications were reported. -- The Nation 2009-04-05 Quote
