Russia's health services are preparing for a new flu season: medical teams have been deployed, monitoring has begun and the whole federation is on alert.
The health authorities have started vaccinating children, people over 60, teachers and doctors with the new flu vaccine, as these groups are the most exposed and the most affected. 64,000 cases of flu and respiratory illness were diagnosed last week alone, more than half of them in children, 10% more than in the same period last year.
Vaccination is starting in clinics across the country. This is the ideal time, because the vaccine takes several weeks to give immunity. This year 18 million people are being vaccinated; more could have been, but there aren't enough resources and vaccine. Many doctors say the vaccine is the best protection against flu. This year's vaccine contains two new virus strains.
People call every blocked or runny nose and cough "flu", and the main complaint is that they were vaccinated and still got ill. But real flu is a severe illness with hard-to-bear symptoms and many complications. According to official figures, flu directly or indirectly causes half a million deaths worldwide each year, mostly through complications.
Daily monitoring of cases has begun. Flu activity is expected to start in mid-December, peak in mid-January and end in March. Doctors don't rule out a pandemic, in which the disease spreads severely across several continents and kills many people, because of changes in the flu virus's genes. The most dangerous is H5N1, bird flu, which is highly lethal when it passes to humans.
Doctors recommend a diet rich in vitamins, with fruit and vegetables such as citrus fruit, berries and apples.
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