Influenza A (H1N1) virus will spread through Serbia in the coming period, but without the consequences it had last year, Belgrade Public Health Institute epidemiologist Predrag Kon said Thursday.

Kon told Tanjug that the virus had been found in two young persons from Belgrade who had reported having no health problems or chronic diseases earlier, but added, however, that in 2011, the virus would not spread as fast as in the previous year.

He said it that about 10 percent of the population was expected to be infected in 2011, bearing in mind the current scientific indicators and last year's data, which showed that more than two million people had been infected with the new flu the previous year.

Kon pointed out that, according to an analysis into the last year influenza situation, only every tenth infected person reported their infection to health-care institutions, and noted that besides the H1N1 subtype, the presence of H3N2 had also been detected.

He added that influenza B virus, found in a majority of European countries, while being dominant in Russia, could be expected to reach Serbia as well.

“The behavior of the virus is not so much dependent on the virus itself, but rather on the number of immune persons,” Kon explained, pointing out that, as every second child in Serbia was born immune to the new flu, it was clear that it could no longer spread as fast as before.

According to Kon, the population now most vulnerable to infection included persons older than 65 years, while in the previous year, persons of all ages had shared almost the same likelihood of becoming infected.

Two persons infected with swine flu in Belgrade

Two cases of swine flu were recorded in Belgrade and the patients' condition is good, the Institute of Public Health of Serbia Milan Jovanovic Batut stated in a release on Thursday.

The first patient is a 29-year old man, who was hospitalized at the Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases Clinical Centre of Serbia and is feeling well, while the second is 19-year old girl who was sent home for treatment after a detailed analysis.

The intensity of flu spreading in Serbia is low and below the threshold for the epidemics period, the statement reads.