Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 1 November 2018 (week 44)

Updated 26 September 2019

Main points: data up to week 43, 2018

Data up to week 43 (ending 25 October 2018) shows:

• influenza activity remains low with only sporadic cases of influenza detected in the community and all indicators below baseline threshold levels
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is below baseline threshold levels for hospitalisations and ICU and HDU admissions
• RSV activity continues to increase with impact particularly in young children

The full weekly flu report this summary is based on, accompanying spreadsheet of data and slideset are available from Weekly national flu reports: 2018 to 2019 season.

Surveillance scheme summaries

Community

Fourteen new acute respiratory outbreaks have been reported in the past 7 days. All outbreaks were reported from care homes where 1 tested positive for enterovirus.

Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) was below baseline threshold
• the overall weekly ILI GP consultation rate was 3.6 per 100,000 registered population in participating GP practices for England, similar to 4.5 per 100,000 in week 42
• in the devolved administrations, ILI rates were also below baseline thresholds

Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was below baseline threshold, with a rate of 0.08 per 100,000 trust catchment population for England (19 NHS Trusts), similar to 0.02 per 100,000 in week 42
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was below baseline threshold, with a rate of 0.01 per 100,000 trust catchment population for England (135 out of 143 NHS Trusts), this is similar to 0.00 per 100,000 in week 42
• there was 1 new influenza admission reported from the 6 severe respiratory failure centres in the UK

All-cause mortality

Data from all-cause mortality surveillance shows:

• no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality by week of death was seen overall and by age group in England
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales

Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care no samples tested positive for influenza through the UK GP sentinel scheme
• in secondary care influenza percent positivity observed was 0.8%, below baseline threshold levels, similar to 0.5% in week 42
• a total of 12 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (3 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 1 influenza A(H3), 6 influenza A(unknown subtype) and 1 influenza B)
• RSV positivity continues to increase at 9.9% with the highest positivity amongst the less than 5 year olds at 20.5%
• for further information and guidance on RSV see NICE guidance

Vaccination

Data from the GP patient, healthcare worker and primary school-age children flu vaccine uptake programmes shows:

• up to week 43 2018, in 96.7% of GP practices in England, the provisional proportion of people who had received the 2018/19 influenza vaccine in targeted groups was 27.0% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 29.6% in pregnant women and 39.4% in those aged 65 years and above
• in 97.2% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection, the provisional proportion vaccinated was 16.1% in 2 year olds and 17.1% in 3 year olds

International situation

• in the temperate zone of the Northern hemisphere, influenza activity remained at inter-seasonal levels. Increased influenza was reported in some countries of Southern and South East Asia
• in the temperate zone of the Southern hemisphere, influenza activity appeared to decrease overall
• worldwide, seasonal influenza subtype A viruses accounted for the majority of detections

Further information

The full weekly flu report this summary is based on, accompanying spreadsheet of data and slideset are available from Weekly national flu reports: 2018 to 2019 season.

See Seasonal influenza: guidance, data and analysis for further information on the symptoms, diagnosis, management, surveillance and epidemiology of seasonal influenza (flu).

See sources of UK flu data: influenza surveillance in the UK for further information and guidance on the surveillance schemes we use to track seasonal influenza.