This is how care collects for the flu season: "All the variants can be serious"

Last year, many people unexpectedly chose to vaccinate, which meant that there was a shortage of influenza vaccines in Västra Götaland.

- The number of vaccines is slowly increasing, and what we noticed last year was that there were more healthy people who wanted to vaccinate, says Gunilla Ockborn, at the Infection Protection Unit in Västra Götaland.

Does this mean that there were people in the risk groups who were not vaccinated because of this?

- Yes, we actually think it was, says Gunilla Ockborn.

In order to avoid getting into the same shortage situation again, they have already been in contact with the suppliers of vaccines and announced that more vaccines will be required this winter.

- We have a dialogue with the suppliers and we have announced that we have listed the need for vaccines by 10 to 15 percent and the supplier has said that they will produce more vaccines, says Gunilla Ockborn.

Last year they started using a flu vaccine that contains protection against all four viruses, there are two A-varieties and two B-varieties. But there is no 100% protection. And you never really know which virus strain will prevail when the flu begins to spread at Christmas time. But you work after a qualified guess that WHO stands for.

- There is an old pandemic called H3N2 and it's been a few years since we last had it, so that's the hint. That's because, among other things, Australia has had quite a lot of H3N2, says Gunilla Ockborn.

Is it a nasty variant of the flu?

"All of these variants can be serious, but what we know about that flu is that it often hits hard on the older population," says Gunilla Ockborn.

How many people in Västra Götaland do you expect will be vaccinated?

- We expect that there are at least more than 250,000, says Gunilla Ockborn, at the Infection Protection Unit in Västra Götaland.