The Min­istry of Health has said that of­fi­cials have con­duct­ed an epi­demi­o­log­i­cal ex­am­i­na­tion of the in­fluen­za deaths for this sea­son and it has been not­ed that the ma­jor­i­ty of the per­sons who have died from in­fluen­za this sea­son ex­hib­it­ed at least one of the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics:

• 65 years of age or old­er;

• Five years of age of less

• Di­a­bet­ic

• Hy­per­ten­sive

• Obese

• Smoked To­bac­co Prod­ucts.

The min­istry said this is in keep­ing with the Min­istry of Health’s list­ing of per­sons who are par­tic­u­lar­ly vul­ner­a­ble to the flu which is com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the pub­lic on an on­go­ing ba­sis. The Min­istry of Health there­fore urges the per­sons in the fol­low­ing high risk groups to get vac­ci­nat­ed against the flu.

The min­istry said the In­fluen­za virus is se­ri­ous and is gen­er­al­ly more se­vere than the com­mon cold. The flu vac­cine is avail­able, at no cost, at all health cen­tres. Mem­bers of the pub­lic are ad­vised to con­tact their near­est health cen­tre to con­firm the dates and times that vac­cines are dis­trib­uted.