Early Flu Advisory

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Health authorities have issued a flu advisory following a rapid rise of influenza patients. The flu advisory comes at its earliest date in the season in the past 5 years.

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A high fever of over 38 degrees Celsius, coughing, chills, muscular pain and a soar throat are all symptoms of the flu. 13.5 out of every 1,000 outpatients exhibited such symptoms during the period between November 27th and December 3rd. This surpasses 8.9 which is the standard for a flu epidemic. Accordingly authorities have issued a flu advisory. This year's flu advisory comes at the earliest date since the winter of 2010. Those who are at high risk of contracting the flu include seniors 65 and older, patients of chronic diseases such as diabetes, pregnant women and infants aged 6 to 59 months. Under the flu advisory, when high risk patients are treated for the flu at hospitals, they only need to pay 30 percent of medicine costs thanks to health insurance coverage of antiviral agents such as Tamiflu. Seniors 65 and above and infants from 6 to 12 months can also get free flu vaccinations.