29 December 2009 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
There has been a considerable decrease in the number of people reporting to hospitals infected with the H1N1 virus, popularly known as swine flu, Professor Gaye Usluer, a member of the Health Ministry’s scientific board and chairwoman of the Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology Specialty Society of Turkey, told the Anatolia news agency on Monday.
Special swine flu vaccines for pregnant women have now arrived in Turkey, and Usluer said immediate vaccination is important for pregnant women so they can gain immunity against swine flu. There has also been a decrease in swine flu cases in the US and Canada, where cases have already reached their peak and are now declining. She said Turkey has still not experienced this yet. “When we look at the World Health Organization’s [WHO] map of swine flu in Europe and Asia, we see a decrease in cases in Western Europe, but it is increasing in Northern Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia and still has not reached its zenith. Turkey is among those countries,” Usluer said.Noting that there has been a decrease in the number of patients complaining of swine flu in Germany and Spain, Usluer said the primary reason behind the decrease was the early vaccination of a high proportion of people. “We protect individuals through vaccination but we also want to get control of the spread of the swine flu virus. For this, we need to vaccinate more people. There has been a considerable decrease in the number of people coming to hospitals complaining of swine flu,” Usluer noted.
The number of people who have received swine flu vaccines in Turkey is more than 2 million, and worldwide the figure is 200 million. Usluer said there have only been 80 serious complaints of side effects from the swine flu vaccination in Turkey and there have been no deaths. “In autopsies nothing has been found that relates to the swine flu vaccine. I think it is important for pregnant women and children to receive vaccinations. Although the official numbers are no longer announced, there has been no decrease in the fatality of flu in Turkey.”
