Swine Flu has really taken off in South Africa this year. There are many diseases and stories that you hear and read about, but you never actually know anybody who is suffering from it, whereas swine flu this year is affecting people in our office, people at the same schools as our children and many people I know.
So far, most of the people that I know and who have largely been vaccinated beforehand, have had relatively mild symptoms, but it is certainly a worry insofar as small children and pregnant women are concerned and at my offices, where the staff all get vaccinated every year, we have already lost more people to flu this year than in any other previous year, so there is obviously some particularly bad strains about, and possibly some that are also not covered by the vaccines. The other argument of course is that whatever period of time they are ill for, and however severe that illness is, it would have been far worse without the vaccination.