Singapore: Acute viral respiratory infection influenza, or flu, strikes every winter, and several nations are preparing to tackle this illness through dedicated healthcare schemes, states a new report by healthcare experts GBI Research.

The new report states that patients normally recover within a week or two from the associated fevers, sore throats, coughs, headaches and fatigue, but vulnerable individuals can develop the more severe disease pneumonia, which can cause severe illness and even death. Both cases prove a serious public health problem that creates a huge social and economic burden for national healthcare systems, and affects the wider economy as a result of time taken off work.

However, safe and effective vaccines have been available for decades, and the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic increased public awareness of the disease, increasing demand for vaccines throughout the US, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Japan. These developed countries offer a high awareness of public health and hygiene, wide vaccination coverage, and rising government support for immunization, presenting an attractive market for vaccine manufacturers.

The growing elderly populations in these countries also offer large numbers of high risk individuals, prompting wide scale immunization. GBI Research predicts that the influenza vaccine market will grow in these top seven countries at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 3.9 percent during the 2011-18 period, from $2.9 billion to $3.8 billion.