MaltaMedia.com

Parliamentary Secretary Mario Galea said on Tuesday afternoon that patients showing symptoms of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus are to be administered Tamiflu immediately instead of being swabbed.

Mr Galea also announced that the first shipment of vaccines should arrive next week. The vaccination of priority groups should also begin in January.

As from 21st December pregnant women with flu symptoms, children younger than 5 years of age and people with aggravated symptoms or complications as well as people with chronic conditions will be administered the flu medication without swab tests.

This change in strategy is because of an increase in seasonal flu cases. Around 80% of them also had swine flu. Mr Galea said that although such an increase was expected there was no cause for alarm.

Until last Monday, there were 682 confirmed cases of swine flu with 92 admissions to hospital and 3 deaths. However, the actual number of cases has been much higher, as mild cases have not been documented for months.

Mr Galea said that Malta had sufficient stocks of Tamiflu with stocks currently comprising 157,000 courses of Tamiflu, 7 kg of Tamiflu powder and 10,000 courses of Relenza, a similar medication which can be administered to people allergic to Tamiflu.

Government has also ordered enough vaccines for the entire population, and the first batch of 100,000 vaccines is set to arrive next week. In line with EU guidelines, 3 priority groups will be vaccinated first: healthcare workers, pregnant women and people with underlying chronic conditions which increase the risk for severe disease.

The remaining vaccines should arrive by early March and are recommended to all people aged over 6 months of age.

The precautions previously recommended are still valid with Mr Galea stressing the importance of frequent hand-washing and for people showing flu symptoms to stay at home.

“The AH1N1 virus is not trasmitted by eating pork products but people get infected from other people. Therefore the precautions taken for other types of influenza must be taken also in this case. For more information read the World Health Organisation’s information here.

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/en/

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