Experts: Swine Flu Epidemic Has Peaked
School-aged kids are next in line for vaccinations.
Image: YLE
Finland's swine flu epidemic may have already peaked. The number of H1N1-virus patients at many hospitals decreased last week. Experts say the disease's spread has been slowed significantly by the vaccination programme.
In Lapland, for example, health care centres have been shutting down separate reception areas which were set up to handle swine flu patients. The number of new swine flu patients has also decreased in northern Savo and central Ostrobothnia.
The head of infectious diseases at the Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District, Ville Valtonen, says that he'll consider that the epidemic has peaked in the capital city region as well if the number of cases doesn't increase on Monday.
"Even so, we will still see cases in January," he adds.
This week vaccinations will be extended to grammar school-aged kids in municipalities which have already vaccinated risk groups with higher priority.
So far, a million people in Finland have been inoculated against the H1N1 flu. Finland received 100,000 more doses of the swine flu vaccine on Monday, with 200,000 more to arrive later this week.
YLE