Health officials estimate that the swine flu pandemic will be over in Switzerland within the next one to two weeks. The seasonal flu is also on the wane.
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In the second week of this year, week 13 of the pandemic, doctors participating in the national notification system recorded 8.6 suspected cases of flu out of 1,000 consultations.
This rate corresponds to 81 patients per 100,000 population; the threshold for a national epidemic is 50 per 100,000.
According to the World Health Organization’s A/H1N1 monitoring unit, the virus is on the decline in most of Europe. The high point of the pandemic was reached in Switzerland in December.
An estimated 1.5 million people have been infected with the virus in the country so far but in most cases the illness has been mild. There have been 18 swine flu-related fatalities, most of which were among the elderly or people suffering from a chronic disease.
The government bought 13 million doses of vaccine to contain a possible swine flu pandemic. However, it is estimated that only one in five of the 7.7 million Swiss residents took advantage of the free vaccinations.
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You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.