MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Influenza epidemic in Santiago.

Chilean Public Health Minister Pedro García confirmed that metropolitan Santiago is suffering from an influenza epidemic and an outbreak of the highly contagious respiratory sincicial virus, VRS.

"Well, it's evident we have an influenza epidemic and in the coming days we'll see a considerable increase in the incidence of VRS", admitted Mr. García, who nevertheless insisted that public hospitals and clinics "were not overflowed with patients", and "we're prepared for situations of greater incidence".

Talking with the press Minister García said that the incidence of influenza and VRS cases was "normal for this time of the year". "We must not be feel frightened by the number of patients in hospitals, these are situations well known for medical teams and we are doing all the necessary service coordination to ensure the best possible attention".

The Minister revealed that to address "peak" respiratory situations extra beds had been habilitated in hospitals and paediatric clinics.

Santiago is one of the most air contaminated cities in Latinamerica and every winter season suffers an "explosion" of respiratory diseases.

But not only Santiago faces a difficult situation, La Prensa Austral from Punta Arenas reports that the Regional hospital and local clinics are receiving an average of 500 daily visits of people complaining about respiratory related diseases.

"We have a high incidence of infectious respiratory cases which is causing problems with our external services", admitted Dr. Franciso Berger from the Regional Hospital. Dr. Berger indicated that the number of bronco-pneumonia cases for this time of the year is "normal" but admitted "we're facing an outbreak of different viruses such as influenza and to a lesser extent the sincicial virus, VRS".

Symptoms are muscular pain, head ache, high fever, cough and respiratory difficulties plus an overall depressive feeling.