Apr-Sept flu season in the country
Say scientists
Scientists yesterday defined the period from April to September as flu season in Bangladesh.
As such, influenza vaccine, or flu shot, should be taken between February to March yearly to ensure maximum protection, they told a seminar.
The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research, and icddr,b jointly organised the seminar to present findings of a nationwide influenza surveillance at IEDCR in Dhaka.
The surveillance is being conducted in 19 hospitals countrywide with technical support from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
Elderly individuals, healthcare professionals and patients with chronic disease should get priority for influenza vaccination, speakers said.
Dr Tahmina Shirin, director of IEDCR and the National Influenza Center, said around 11 percent of the 1,15,000 patients hospitalised with short-term fever and cough were infected with influenza, of whom one percent died.
"Adults over 60 and patients with chronic illnesses had a three-time higher death rate.''
icddr,b Executive director Dr Tahmeed Ahmed, Additional Director General of DGHS Prof Meerjady Sabrina Flora, , Infectious Hazard Management Officer of WHO Dr ASM Alamgir, and Epidemiologist at US-CDC Dr Gretchen Cowman, also spoke at the event among others.