2015-2016 flu season to be less intense

(ANSA) - Rome, January 11 - This year's 'flu season is expected to be less intense than the 2014-2015 season, a top National Health Institute (ISS) official said Monday.
    "This year, there has been no mutation in the flu viruses and so the population is better protected," Giovanni Rezza, director of the department of infectious diseases, said.
    "In addition, temperatures are higher: all conditions that help 'contain' the spread of the virus." The viruses doing the rounds this year are AH1N1, H3N2 and a type B virus, he added.
    Fewer than a million cases have been registered to date, and even if the season lasts longer than last year the peak forecast for February is unlikely to outstrip 2015, Rezza said. The expert also gave reassurances concerning a mutation of the AH1N1 virus - HAH1N1 - found in pigs in China. The Chinese authorities called for "immediate" action to prevent the spread of the virus to humans, Rezza said. Further, the danger of such a virus jumping from pig to person and then being transmitted from one person to another was "only theoretical and potential", he added.