Dutch advice on Mexican flu: 'Just sit it out'

The Dutch National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) announced Friday that it has stopped recording new Mexican flu patients in the Netherlands. Doctors and hospitals no longer have to report new cases to the health authorities.

From the available data it looks like the Mexican flu is after all relatively mild. Only one to three percent of all patients develop complications, mostly pneumonia.

Two thirds of all patients with complications so far belong to the traditional groups at risk. These include people over 60, children under two, people with diabetes, heart or lung diseases, pregnant women in their third trimester, and people with diminished resistance, for instance as a result of chemotherapy. These people already qualify for the regular winter flu shot.

In other words, the Dutch health authorities are now treating the Mexican flu as a common winter flu.

nrc.nl - International - Dutch advice on Mexican flu: 'Just sit it out'