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Sweden’s swine flu response wins EU praise

Published: 4 Dec 09 07:51 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/23644/20091204/

Two European-wide health bodies have praised Sweden’s response to the swine flu pandemic, particularly the country's mass vaccination programme. Nearly half of all Europeans to have been vaccinated are Swedes.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) praised Sweden’s campaign to combat the spread of the flu. “ECDC considers that Sweden is among the best in Europe when it comes to vaccinations,” a spokesperson told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper.

Monika Benstetter, information officer at the European-wide public health body, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), praised the Swedish Government’s openness about the influenza, and commended the Government for keeping the public informed about the side effects of the vaccine in a timely manner. “The vaccine was made quickly available and many have been willing to vaccinate themselves, which is different from many other European countries,” she told the paper.

Over 40 percent of Swedes – nearly four million people – have been vaccinated against swine flu, according to the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (Smittskyddsinstitutet), and Sweden’s municipal councils and health authorities. This compares with the total number of EU residents vaccinated, around 10 million.

TT/Stuart Roberts (news@thelocal.se)

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09:21 December 4, 2009 by crunchy2k
And this body has any authority outside breastfeeding their children?
09:50 December 4, 2009 by peropaco
Indeed I must congratulate Sweden for carrying out the immunization in a timely and organized manner. I asked some of my family in France if they have taken the shot and seems the bureaucrats are still chasing their tails
09:56 December 4, 2009 by microping
Well done! Sweden
10:12 December 4, 2009 by byke
Having seen first hand some of the issues relating to this sickness and the problems faced in hospitals I dont believe the stats given.

Many did start to rush out for the jab when the flu started to spread quickly, but most shots were unavailable due to shortages and high risk and kids first.

When I contracted the Flu I was told to go to the appoteket to collect my Tamiflu and que up with all the other people ... there has been no attempts at trying to kerb the spread of the flu like many other countries and it appears sweden almost wanted everyone to get this flu so that they could get on with it.

I am glad the shots have been made available but public information from the government has been unclear and the result has also effected the amount of people getting sick.
11:16 December 4, 2009 by Nemesis
Congratulations to Sweden.

Well done for putting the safety of Swedish people first and getting as many as possible vacinated.

Other European countries would do well to observe, learn from and then copy this good example of public health care.

Also thank you to Sweden for giving me a free vaccination. I appreciated it. I would have either not got it back home or have to had pay for it.
11:52 December 4, 2009 by just a question
It doesn't surprise me.

The picture that comes to my head is "sheep"
13:28 December 4, 2009 by AstroSphinx.se
I hope its just for show. Certainly you can say many bought it and they are pressing quite allot and giving amazingly faulty information and killing the ward care with panic but deary me we are so amazingly vaccinated and good law abiding people here, how could we not be vaccinated after so much money of our taxes has gone into this hoax? And the health problems later on? Who cares, right?
14:57 December 4, 2009 by xenyasai
These are very positive results. Not only does it show Sweden has a proactive government; but also Sweden doesn't seem to be infested me too many antivaxxers.
22:41 December 4, 2009 by Osokin
bird flu, swine flu, standing by for rabbit flu, ka-ching!

Tks for shopping at bigpharma co.
10:51 December 5, 2009 by Kooritze
Easy when you have only 9 million people.........sorry sheeple!

@Osokin

loved your comment.
15:24 December 5, 2009 by xenyasai
@Kooritze: What type of sheeple are you talking about? The kind that trusts science, instead of the nutjob antivaxxers who pull their "facts" out of thin air and made-up assumptions?
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