Swine flu combined with seasonal flu could kill thousands of people across Europe, experts have claimed.
The H1N1 pandemic flu virus could kill up to 40,000 people and be followed by seasonal flu waves that could kill the same number, claim researchers from the Sweden-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
"All European countries will be affected, and this will put considerable stress on healthcare systems," said ECDC director Zsuzsanna Jakab.
The ECDC, which monitors disease in the European Union and European free trade area (EFTA), said it was hard to predict what the mix of pandemic and seasonal flu viruses would bring but there was a risk of seasonal flu epidemics "early in 2010 when the pandemic waves have passed".
Angus Nicoll, the ECDC's flu coordinator, said in non-pandemic situations, seasonal flu could kill up to 40,000 people in Europe -- and H1N1 could do the same.
"That is not a trivial number," he said. "And the fact that H1N1 is happening in younger adults, pregnant women and people without risk factors... makes it feel different."
The ECDC said evidence so far shows some 20% to 30% of H1N1 deaths are among healthy young people.
The ECDC said all 27 EU and four EFTA countries have cases of H1N1 pandemic flu and there have been 389 deaths linked to H1N1 in the region since April, including 154 in Britain, 73 in Spain, 25 in Italy and 22 in France.
The ECDC's global toll showed 6,005 fatal cases of H1N1 have been reported but said the number of fatal cases were likely to be "gross understimates" as access to healthcare and lab tests varied from country to country.
Nicoll said vaccination programmes which started in some European countries in recent weeks were vital to protecting those most at risk but had come too late to halt the disease.
"We're not trying at this stage to protect the whole of society with the vaccines. The strategy is to protect the vulnerable."
Reuters
