The City of Helsinki plans to shut down the special swine flu clinic that it opened up at the Laakso Hospital earlier in the year. The clinic is to be closed in November unless the spread of the H1N1 virus reaches epidemic proportions in the coming weeks.
Treatment of swine flu cases in the Finnish capital was concentrated on Laakso in July. So far there have been fewer cases of the disease than had been feared.
“In August the number of patients increased so much that we expected a swine flu epidemic to arrive in September”, says Pekka Ruusulehto, head physician at the Laakso swine flu clinic.
However, this did not materialise.
The clinic has been fairly quiet in recent weeks. In August about 80 patients a day visited Laakso. This has declined to about half that number today.
“The swine flu situation is very calm and stable in Helsinki and all of Finland”, says Matti Toivila, managing director of the City of Helsinki Health Centre.
Patients have been sent to Laakso by their local health clinics if they have exhibited symptoms suggesting the possibility of swine flu. About one in five of the patients have received a positive diagnosis for the virus.
The first swine flu vaccines are to arrive in Helsinki this week.
Health care personnel are to be the first to be given the shots.
The clinic at Laakso is likely to be closed after health care staff get the vaccine. After that, vaccinations of the public at large are to begin.
