Germany faces wave of A/H1N1 virus infection

About 3,000 new cases of H1N1 flu virus infection have been confirmed in Germany last week, said by the national disease control and prevention agency on Monday.

Latest figures show last week the confirmed cases of new infections rose to about 3,000, said Joerg Hacker, head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. So far, a total of some 30,000 swine flu infections have been reported in Germany since April, while six people have died of the virus.

The number of cases is expected to continue rising in the future, Hacker said, and it's very hard to predict how long this infection wave will last. Most of the victims in current wave were infected in Germany instead of catching the virus on trips abroad, Hacker said.

However, the nation should not feel panic for it, Hacker said, as the current wave has been predicted this summer and no mutations to the virus have been detected so far.

Germany has started its H1N1 flu vaccinations for health workers, police and at-risk patients since last week, but the general public will have to wait until late-November.

Source: Xinhua