Hospitals across Beijing have been deluged by masses of children and young people who have been laid low by colds and flu.

Though cases of flu virus did turn in up in two districts in the capital, experts said it was not a large-scale outbreak of influenza.

Sources at the Beijing Municipal Center for Disease Prevention and Control said 8 percent of the patients in hospital had been infected by influenza, which was normal compared with the same period in previous years.

Experts said local residents need not worry too much because this year's flu virus was similar to those of years past.

Community hospitals are able to cope with this year's cases.

Disease prevention and control authorities are monitoring variations and transmission of the flu virus, sources said.

Sources with the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Station linked the outbreak of colds with the warm weather in mid-December.

The Beijing Children's Hospital has received over 7,000 patients every day this winter. Among the patients, more than 60 percent have infections of the upper respiratory tract, as well as fevers, coughs and sore throats.

"There have been more cold patients this winter than in any year of the past 20," Geng Rong, director of the hospital's emergency treatment department, told the China Central Television.

Geng said the number of cases has been fairly constant since late last month.

Other hospitals with paediatrics departments have faced similar challenges.

Sources at the Armed Police General Hospital said the hospital had received 150 percent more children with colds during the past week compared with the same period last year.

Ding Deping, director of the Beijing Municipal Meteorological Station, attributed the large number of cold cases to the unseasonably warm weather early last month.

(China Daily 01/08/2007 page3)