Hungary among worst affected by new flu despite advanced vaccine plan

Hungary is among countries judged by a European health authority to have been the worst affected by new flu despite its advanced vaccine programme, Nepszabadsag daily said on Thursday.

Latest data of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show that most of Europe had a death rate linked to the virus of between 0.3 and 0.6 per 100,000 residents, Hungary, Latvia, Estonia and Greece had a much higher rate of between 1.2 and 1.6 per 100,000, said the paper.

Hungary's high figure is perplexing, said the paper, given that the country operated one of the promptest and most comprehensive vaccine programmes in the world.

Hungarian health experts attributed the high rate to possible faulty data collection and differences in the definition of what it is that caused a fatality. It is possible that Hungarian health officials attributed deaths to the H1N1 virus when in fact the virus was present but not necessarily the proximate cause.

There were 133 deaths in Hungary linked to new flu - a number which should otherwise correlate to a country three times the size.

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