The vaccines against pandemic flu administered until present produced no adverse side effects. Only 70,000 Cantgrip vaccine of the 150,000 provided by the Government of Romania have been used so far, Minister of Health Vladimir Hotineanu told a news conference, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Hotineanu, the number of seasonal and pandemic flu cases has decreased by 45% this month, while of cases of pneumonia by 14%. But the number of deaths went up. The pandemic flu caused the first deaths among children – of a child aged 5 and another one aged 11. Experts say a second wave of pandemic flu is expected in Moldova between February and April. This wave could be more serious than the first and could affect about 25% of Moldova's population. The Ministry of Health said the nonspecific preventive and diagnosis measures cannot prevent the infection and reduce the infection risks. Vaccination is the safest preventive method. “The people should realize that the vaccinated persons protect not only themselves, but also all those around them,” Hotineanu said. For his part, Deputy Minister of Health Mihai Magdei said the Ministry ensured all Moldovan people's access to primary and emergency medical assistance and to the virusological laboratory. Tamiflu is provided free of charge to all the people who experience pandemic-flu like symptoms, no matter whether they have health insurance policy of not. Owing to the measures taken, there were treated 18,000 cases of seasonal and pandemic flu and 280,000 cases of viral infections, Mihai Magdei said. In the same news conference, Oleg Benes, the head of the National Scientific Practical Center of Preventive Medicine, said the vaccine is beneficial to pregnant women, including the fetus, and nursing mothers and breastfed children. He also said that the Center has a system for supervising the adverse side effects, stressing the vaccine produced insignificant side effects in only 2 persons of the 70,000 vaccinated. “Assessing the effect of about 150 million vaccines against pandemic flu, the World Health Organization confirmed that they are safe and as harmless as the vaccines against seasonal flu,” the representative of the WHO in Moldova Pavel Ursu said. The WHO and the Government of Austria intend to provide by 500,000 vaccines against pandemic flu to Moldova. Special vaccines for children from the age of six months will come to Moldova late in February. The pandemic influenza A(H1N1) caused more than 13,500 deaths worldwide, including 2,292 in the EU.