Swine flu death toll doubles

Health Minister Dana Jurásková dismissed allegations that her ministry is responsible for the low numbers of swine flu vaccinations among the general public, instead blaming the media and what she called self-appointed swine flu experts.

Her comments came as the swine flu death toll more than doubled in the past week from 11 to 27 with more than 900 infected.

At least one university is terminating studies ahead of schedule to prevent the spread of the A/H1N1 virus.

"We decided to shorten the winter semester because of swine flu," said Jaroslav Kania, bursar at the Silesian University in Opava, north Moravia.

The Education Ministry has issued guidelines to schools and colleges but is not demanding all schools extend their upcoming holidays.

"The Education Ministry recommends each school take measures, including possible closure, if the level of sick students exceeds 15 percent," ministry spokesman Tomáš Bouška said.

Vaccinations against the virus began last week, but the public seems far from convinced about the need for a shot, according to health officials. Many doctors have said they will not get vaccinated.

The government is offering voluntary vaccination initially to around 1 million Czechs, or one-tenth of the population. Most of these are frontline healthcare workers or members of essential services. Members of the general public who wish to be vaccinated have to contact their local general physician, who will then refer them to a designated vaccination center.

The Czech Republic is not vaccinating children under 10 due to safety concerns among the country's medical professionals. However, other European countries are giving children under 10 at least one vaccination shot.

"I cannot imagine how to convince the doctors," Jurásková said, stressing the vaccine is safe.

"The vaccine has all the required certificates from European authorities. All of the vaccines have undergone testing. They were not released to the population without all the proper clinical studies having been conducted."

The European Medicines Agency, the European Union's medicine watchdog, endorsed her comments, saying the vaccination of millions of Europeans against swine flu has yet to raise any major safety concerns.

About 10 million people have been vaccinated against the virus across the 27-nation bloc so far, and, "To date, no unexpected serious safety issues have been identified," a spokesperson said.

"The adverse effects reported so far have mainly been symptoms such as fever, nausea, headache, allergic reactions and injection-site reactions, confirming the expected safety profile of the three vaccines."

The World Health Organization (WHO) said last month that mild virus mutations were observed in Brazil, China, Japan, Mexico (where the swine flu pandemic began), Ukraine and the United States as early as April.

WHO also underscored there is no evidence of more infections or more deaths as a result.

Scientists fear mutations in flu viruses could cause more virulent and deadly pandemic flu. The global health watchdog reiterated a call for close monitoring.

"Although further investigation is under way, no evidence currently suggests these mutations are leading to an unusual increase in the number of infections or a greater number of severe or fatal cases," it added.

The Atlanta-based Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that every person who comes to work with swine flu will infect 10 percent of co-workers.

A Harvard School of Public Health study found two-thirds of businesses could not maintain normal operations if half their workers were out for just two weeks.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com