Winter Flu Outbreak

[Anchor Lead]

The rate of flu infections this winter is alarming health authorities. In just one month since a recent flu warning was issued, the number of patients spiked sevenfold. What is more concerning and even unusual is that influenza types A and B are spreading concurrently.

[Pkg]

All the patients in this hospital room are suffering from the flu. This 9-month-old girl was admitted last week after showing the symptom of high fever. As her 3-year-old brother and mother also caught the flu, her whole family has been hospitalized for a week now. Hospitals around Korea have been packed recently with patients diagnosed with the flu. It was earlier last month when a flu warning was issued. Since then, the number of patients suspected of flu has spiked from 7.7 per 1,000 patients to 53.6. That's nearly a seven-fold hike in just one month. Unlike in previous years, the influenza types A and B appeared alternately, this year the two types of flu are spreading at the same time, causing double and cross infections.

[Soundbite] Dr. Hong Ju-hee(Sowha Children's Hospital) : "People need to be cautious for a while, because even if you recover from one type of flu, you may be infected again with another flu type."

At this rate, public health authorities project that the flu epidemic would peak at the end of this month. They also recommend that those who have not received flu shots to be vaccinated even now, since flu inoculation prevents infection and, mitigates the symptoms when infected with the flu virus.