Outbreak of flu is expected in Moldova not earlier than February - doctors

Doctors say that this year an outbreak of flu could appear not earlier than February. Requested by Info-Prim Neo, researcher from the National Scientific-Practical Centre for Preventive Medicine, Damian Ciobanu stated that, for the time being, no case of flu was reported at the nine supervision points placed in different zones in Moldova. As Ciobanu says, due to the mild weather, unfortunately, the number of viruses that usually appear in autumn has increased, and they were not replaced by flu viruses. Specialist asserts that these rather aggressive viruses could disappear in mid-February. The cold season 2006-2007 shows a less active influenza in Europe compared to the same period of last season, but an increase in the number of flu cases is registered in the Northern Ireland, Scotland, Switzerland, and France, where regional outbreaks are of medium intensity. The A type influenza viruses are dominating, including A/H1N1 and A/H3N2 viruses, which are used for seasonal vaccinations. The persons that have already vaccinated will be protected or will get infected with the benign forms of the virus. A group of American researchers have recently made out the particles of influenza virus by means of the three-dimensional electronic tomography, which gives the possibility to identify particular features of the highly virulent strains and show how the antibodies inactivate the virus, how the susceptible cells find the viruses and go through them in the process of infection. One of the difficulties that impeded to study the structure of the influenza virus is the inexistence of two identical flu particles, a particularity that differs it from other viruses.