Hong Kong health officials are urging everyone to get the new flu vaccine. They say a new wave of the flu virus is expected and the winter weather is colder than usual.
The Centre for Health Protection made its request at the same time as a doctor specialising in infectious diseases who was concerned about low vaccination rates.
Even though the weather is getting colder, information showed that the flu season we are in, the summer one, is about to finish.
Ivan Hung Fan-ngai, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Hong Kong, said that colder weather and kids returning to school after the holiday could trigger a flu outbreak.
“Cold weather is suitable for the reproduction of the influenza virus,” he said in a radio interview. “It is possible that the outbreak will continue until after Lunar New Year [next month], until the weather gets warmer in March.”
Seasonal flu is a sickness that affects the lungs and throat. It is caused by the flu virus. In Hong Kong, this happens more often from January to April and again from July to August.
