Between 1,000 and 2,500 lives could be claimed in Malta if an influenza pandemic were to break out, the principal medical officer of the Disease Surveillance Unit, Tanya Fenech Melillo, said, urging those most at risk to take the influenza vaccine.
Apart from the deaths, hospital admissions could rise by between 3,000 and 5,000.
Experts were of the opinion that an influenza pandemic was "inevitable and possibly imminent", Dr Fenech Melillo said. Epidemiological models project a likelihood of 57 - 132 million outpatient visits, between one million and 2.3 million admissions to hospital and up to 650,000 deaths in under two years in industrialised countries alone.
The impact is likely to be more pronounced in developing countries. Dr Fenech Melillo said estimates of records of previous pandemics that took place last century were between 20 million and 40 million deaths worldwide.
The possibility of a pandemic makes it more important for people, especially those over 65 and those in high risk groups - such as diabetics, chronic respiratory disease sufferers, those who are HIV positive and sufferers of cardiovascular disease - to receive the influenza vaccine. They may receive the vaccine for free from health centres. All elderly people living in residential homes should also take the vaccine, Dr Fenech Melillo said.
According to the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, influenza vaccines reduce hospitalisation by 70 per cent and death by 85 per cent in people over 65 living in the community. Among nursing home residents the vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalisation by 50 per cent, the risk of pneumonia by 60 per cent and the risk of death by 75 to 80 per cent.
"Every year, it is becoming more important to vaccinate, as the likelihood of the influenza pandemic occurring increases," Dr Fenech Melillo said.
She said it was considered very important to vaccinate against influenza as it could cause death and a significant disruption to society. "Given high global traffic, a pandemic virus will spread rapidly," she said.
Because of widespread illness, an influenza pandemic could result in sudden shortages of personnel needed to provide essential community services, while medical facilities would be overwhelmed. However, she added, like most countries Malta has prepared an influenza pandemic plan.
"The best way to prepare for an influenza pandemic is to strengthen the capacity for responding to the annual influenza epidemic," she said.
Medical communities throughout the world are keeping their eyes open amid fears that the avian, or bird flu virus - which is potentially more deadly than more common forms of influenza - could mutate in such a way as to spread easily from person to person, making the possibility of a pandemic more likely.
Dr Fenech Melillo said the avian influenza is a disease contracted by birds and humans could be infected on rare occasions through close contact with live infected poultry. Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and China experienced these outbreaks and people visiting these countries are advised to avoid going to live poultry markets and poultry farms.
The early symptoms of human avian influenza are similar to the early symptoms of human influenza and include fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches. Later on one could develop conjunctivitis (redness and soreness of the clear covering which coats the white of the eye and lines the inside of the eye lids), pneumonia, acute respiratory distress, viral pneumonia and other severe and life-threatening complications.
Dr Fenech Melillo said the time from exposure to the onset of influenza is likely to be between three and five days, with a maximum of seven days.
"Avian influenza can sometimes be fatal. This happens when the virus becomes resistant to influenza antiviral medications," she explained.
Although the influenza vaccine that is taken annually does not protect against the avian flu, Dr Fenech Melillo said it was still recommended by experts since they believe it would offer some resistance to the disease. However, a new vaccine would need to be produced for this new strain of flu.