Seasonal influenza has posed a greater threat in Taiwan than the coronavirus outbreak from mainland China, with at least 56 people dying of swine flu, also known as H1N1 virus-affected respiratory failure in the past three months, according to the island's Centres for Disease Control.

CDC officials stopped short of breaking out the number of fatalities in the past week, but local news media reported that number as 13 deaths. There are only 10 confirmed cases in Taiwan of the coronavirus that originated in the mainland city of Wuhan, and no deaths so far.

According to the Central News Agency, 13 people aged between 47 and 97 died of the seasonal flu, including an 80-year-old woman who developed a fever in late December, eventually dying of pneumonia and respiratory failure in hospital.

The agency quoted a CDC doctor, Lin Yung-ching, as saying that the woman had received a flu vaccine before contracting the flu. Lin said that the rest of the patients who died of the flu-affected complication of pneumonia and respiratory problems had not received a vaccine.

CDC officials said H1N1 has been the predominant virus type in Taiwan over the past three months. "During this season, there have been 771 influenza cases with severe complications since Oct 1, including 56 deaths," a spokeswoman said.

Of the severe cases, 41 per cent of the patients are older than 65; another 32 per cent are in the 50-64 age group, she said. The spokeswoman said that 98 per cent of those patients had not received any flu vaccines and close to 80 per cent have chronic diseases.

She called for residents to get the flu vaccine to better protect themselves, saying that "none of the 43 patients who died from flu complications in the past three months had been vaccinated".

The CDC has operated a seasonal influenza vaccination campaign since Nov 15, offering free shots to locals in three groups: those for students in elementary through high school, health care workers and senior citizens.

In the US, at least 1,300 people have died from the flu so far this season, according to a preliminary estimate by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

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This article was first published in the South China Morning Post.