Italy's unusually mild winter kept the flu season at bay this year and experts said on Monday that it had already peaked and the number of reported cases was dropping rapidly.
The season had initially been expected to peak in January but unseasonally high temperatures delayed the peak well into February.
Neither the delay in its arrival nor the low intensity of the epidemic were exceptional, although it was unusual that the flu hit harder in the south than in the north, experts said.
Other factors which may have contributed to the low number of reported flu cases included the fact that more people were vaccinated and the viruses which were in circulation are not radically different from previous ones, meaning that many people have already built up an immunity against them.
This year's influenza had been dubbed the 'American flu' because it was priimarily based on the Wisconsin type A virus (H3N2) with strains of the New Caledonia A (H1N1) and Malaysia B viruses.
