Swine flu reported in 74 Russian regions - Rospotrebnadzor

MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Cold and flu morbidity has been rising in Russia, it is up 23% over the past week, and a swine flu variant has been reported in 74 regions, the press service for the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) said on Tuesday.

"Cold and flu morbidity keeps rising in Russia. The cold and flu incidence rate has grown 23.3% over the past week, compared to the week before [...] The so-called swine flu has been reported in 74 Russian constituent territories," Rospotrebnadzor said.

In the structure of respiratory viruses of non-influenza etiology, the share of rhinoviruses (13.3%), RS viruses (12.0%), metapneumoviruses (10.1%) and adenoviruses (7.2%) remains the highest, it said

More than 72.4 million people, or 49.5% of the entire population, have been vaccinated for flu, Rospotrebnadzor said.

As of December 2, the vaccination rates were the highest in Tuva (61.5%), Chechnya (60.5%), the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District (60.4%), the Tyumen region (60.1%), and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District (59.1%).

The rates are the smallest in the Vladimir region (42.1%), the Ulyanovsk region (41.5%), the Pskov region (37.8%), Karelia (40.9%), Khakassia (39.8%), and the Murmansk region (32.5%).