ABOUT 600 people die from influenza in Singapore every year, and many of these lives could have been saved, experts say.

The majority of them are 65 years and older. They rarely die of the flu virus, but from complications arising from a bad flu bout.

Doctors say that flu vaccine can cut the risk of death among the elderly by as much as 80 per cent. A study on the flu deaths here between 1996 and 2003, released by the Ministry of Health and Singapore General Hospital in 2006, found that people over 65 are more than 11 times as likely to die of the flu than younger adults.

Many die because they also get a bacterial infection on top of the flu, and develop pneumonia, the third most common cause of deaths here.

The team concluded that these 600 deaths could have been prevented either through annual vaccinations or good treatment with antiviral medicine like Tamiflu or Relenza.

Unlike in temperate countries where an influenza outbreak is as certain as the coming of winter, the flu is a year round phenomenon in Singapore.

In Singapore, up to 2002, only about 20,000 people get the flu vaccine, or less than five per cent of the susceptible group.

But following the outbreak of Sars in 2003, the number of people who got vaccinated jumped dramatically to over 300,000 that year.

The Health Ministry on Thursday said that there is no need for people here to rush to get a flu shot because of the flu outbreak in Hong Kong, which has killed four youngsters so far.

As a precautionary measure, Hong Kong authorities on Wednesday ordered all kindergartens and primary schools closed for two weeks.

The World Health Organisation has said that Hong Kong is dealing with basically a seasonal flu outbreak.