Influenza in Daghestan

A flu epidemic has broken out in Russia's North-Caucasian republic of Daghestan, exceeding the epidemiological threshold in the majority of the republic's administrative districts. Starting from mid-January, around 80,000 of flu patients have been registered in the republic, more than 50% of them being children under 14. According to the local State Sanitary Inspection, it is the republic's worst outbreak of flu and respiratory viral diseases in years. The epidemic has prompted authorities to place around 500 secondary schools and pre-school establishments under quarantine. Although sanitary inspectors have recently registered a certain decline in the 'flu rate among children, the number of 'flu cases among grown-ups continues to grow. Specialists say the epidemic is not likely to abate until late-February, RIA Novosti reports.