Medical experts say a vaccination against influenza is an important preventive measure, despite the popularity of kits for swift diagnosis and drugs to fight the flu.
Eighty percent of vaccinated adults reportedly avoid coming down with the flu; the figure for people aged 65 or older, however, is 45 percent, and of the remaining 55 percent who become sick despite vaccination 80 percent survive.
Local governments began subsidizing some inoculation expenses for elderly people in 2001, and 35 percent of them were vaccinated last season.