December 24, 2003 - 21:33 AMT
NUMBER OF INFLUENZA PATIENTS EXCEEDS 5.5 THOUSAND IN ARMENIA
By today 5564 people have got influenza and acute respiratory virus infection in Armenia, the ministry of health told "Arminfo" agency. These are official data on sick people, which physicians consider as pre-epidemic. However, in their words, many of those ill do not resort to medical care and the real number of fallen sick is much higher, i.e. it exceeds the epidemic level. The data on the number of appeals to ambulance also evidence it - only on December 22 there were 214 calls due to high temperature. A woman suffering from diabetes died in Armenia, as influenza exacerbated her main malady.