Flu Epidemic Europe 2012?

I came down a week ago with a random flu-like disease.
My fever came and went, while my throat only felt a little sore for a couple of days. No nasal congestion, no rash. I wasn't sore all over, although it did bring a killer headache.
Aside from this, I was tired 24/7, even when I slept 9 hrs.
It certainly wasn't strong enough to keep me in bed, but it was annoying.

Today, I found a newspaper article in a Dutch newspaper concerning the flu. Title: "Experts predict flu epidemic"

Sp!ts, September 12th 2012

Read on for a sucky English translation (by me)

Experts forecast flu epidemic
By Alrik De Jong

Amsterdam - German researchers predict that a flu epidemic will strike Europe. The scientists base their prediction on stats from Australia. At this moment, they're dealing with the flu season and up until now, twice as many citizens have been infected with the influenza virus. The researchers from the "Deutsche Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung der Viruskrankheiten' (a rough translation would be 'German Society for Combating Virus-borne Illnesses'*) think the epidemic will reach Europe through international travelers.

According to the scientists, the diseases easily travel to other continents through airplane traveling. This happens especially when in one part of the world the flu season ends while in the other part of the world the season still has to begin. At this point, the people don't have a lot of antibodies in their body yet so they're more prone to becoming ill.
"I recommend the elderly people and those with chronic diseases to get the flu shot," said the front man of the Deutsche Vereinigung zur Bekämpfung der Viruskrankheiten.
In Germany, the government has bought extra flu shots in preparation.

Panic and chaos doesn't hold the Netherlands in its grip, yet.
"I don't know about the research done, but usually, predicting flu epidemics is hard. We don't know about an epidemic, nor do we know something about extra flu shots." someone from the Rijksinstituut van Volksgeondheid en Milieu said.

In the Netherlands, about 30% of the citizens is eligible for a free flu shot, while only +- 65% of those people actually let themselves be vaccinated.

pic: ANP
 

 *I don't know anything about German languages. I'm basing it on the Dutch/German similarities, so if someone has a better translation, do post it.

 After publishing this, I think we will get mass panic and hysteria. While we're generally pretty down-to-earth, we also threw a fit about the swine flu(2009). Another epidemic coming to the Netherlands so soon after the death of a New Ohioan woman doesn't work wonders.