An outbreak of the influenza A H1N1 virus is unavoidable, according to a leading scientist

Upwards of 1.5 million Danes are at risk of contracting the influenza A virus starting in August, a top viral expert at the University of Copenhagen’s Faculty of Health Sciences predicts.

Influenza A (H1N1) has already struck around 51,000 people worldwide so far. In Denmark, 38 cases have been reported in Denmark, and according to national disease control centre Statens Serum Institut 23 of those cases were contracted abroad.

Dr Jens Lundgren, an expert in viral diseases with the University of Copenhagen, explained that the reason the virus has spread so slowly until now is because the warm summer weather in the northern hemisphere has hampered its contagious properties.

‘But my guess is that we’ll be hit by a first wave of the virus in August and September, when people have come home from their summer holidays,’ Lundgren told science news website Videnskab.dk. ‘This virus is extremely contagious so as soon as the weather cools down and children start back at daycare and nursery school, the virus will really kick in.’

Influenza A has been classified by the World Health Organisation as a pandemic in the southern hemisphere. In Australia and Chile alone over 8,000 people have been infected, resulting in 10 deaths.

And from its origins in Mexico this past spring, the virus quickly spread to the US, where it infected more than 24,000. In Europe, the UK has been the worst hit, reporting over 3,000 confirmed cases.

Lundgren said that around 35 percent of those who come in contact with the virus become infected.

Statistically, most of those who get sick are young people, but because the symptoms tend to be mild, those already suffering from another illness or whose immune systems are weakened are most at risk of being seriously affected.