Official Statistics

National flu report summary: 21 February 2019 (week 8)

Updated 26 September 2019

1. Main points: data up to week 7, 2019

Data up to week 7 (ending 17 February 2019) shows:

• during week 7, influenza continued to circulate in the community with activity indicators at low intensity
• the impact of flu on healthcare services is at high impact for hospitalisations and ICU/HDU influenza admissions
• influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 is the dominant circulating subtype
• the Department of Health and Social Care has issued an alert on the prescription of antiviral medicines by GPs

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.

2. Surveillance scheme summaries

2.1 Community

Data from outbreak surveillance shows:

• there have been 100 new acute respiratory outbreaks reported in the past 7 days
• 65 outbreaks were reported from care homes where 30 tested positive for influenza A(not subtyped), 3 for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 1 for parainfluenza, 1 for RSV and 1 for rhinovirus
• 15 outbreaks were reported from hospitals where 10 tested positive for influenza A(not subtyped), 2 for influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 1 for hMPV and 1 co-infection of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and RSV
• 17 outbreaks were reported from schools where 3 were positive for influenza A(not subtyped) and 1 was positive for an infection of Bordetella spp.
• the remaining 3 outbreaks were reported from the other settings category with no test results available

2.2 Primary care

Data from primary care surveillance shows:

• the rate of influenza-like illness (ILI) was at low intensity levels
• the overall weekly ILI GP consultation rate was 21.1 per 100,000 registered population in participating GP practices for England, this is a slight decrease from 23.1 per 100,000 in week 6
• in the devolved administrations, ILI rates were at below baseline threshold levels for Northern Ireland and Scotland and were at low intensity levels for Wales

2.3 Secondary care

Data from secondary care surveillance shows:

• hospitalisation rate observed was at high impact levels, with a rate of 5.97 per 100,000 trust catchment population for England (20 NHS Trusts), this is an decrease from 6.86 per 100,000 in week 6
• ICU and HDU admission rate observed was at high impact levels, with a rate of 0.49 per 100,000 trust catchment population for England (137 out of 143 NHS Trusts), this is similar to 0.55 per 100,000 in week 6
• there were 7 new influenza admissions (5 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and 2 influenza A(unknown subtype)) reported from the 6 severe respiratory failure centres in the UK

2.4 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 week 7
• in the devolved administrations, no statistically significant excess all-cause mortality for all ages was observed in Wales and Northern Ireland in week 7 2019 and in Scotland in week 6 2019

2.5 Microbiological surveillance

Data from microbiological surveillance shows:

• in primary care 65 samples tested positive for influenza (43 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 19 influenza A(H3) and 3 influenza A(not subtyped)) with a positivity of 49.6% through the UK GP sentinel swabbing schemes
• in secondary care influenza percent positivity was 27.9%, above baseline threshold levels, this is similar to 28.7% in week 6
• a total of 891 detections were recorded through the DataMart scheme (402 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, 200 influenza A(H3), 284 influenza A(unknown subtype) and 5 influenza B)

2.6 Vaccination

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

• provisional data from the fourth monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake in GP patients shows that in 99.6% of GP practices the proportions of people in England who had received the 2018/19 influenza vaccine in targeted groups by 31 January 2019 were: 46.9% in under 65 years in a clinical risk group, 45.0% in pregnant women and 71.3% in those aged 65 years and over
• provisional data from the fourth monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake in GP patients shows 99.4% of GP practices reporting for the childhood collection the proportions vaccinated by 31 January 2019 were: 43.1% in 2 year olds and 45.2% in 3 year olds
• provisional data from the fourth monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake by frontline healthcare workers show 68.6% were vaccinated by 31 January 2019, compared to 67.6% vaccinated in the previous season by 31 January 2018
• provisional data from the fourth monthly collection of influenza vaccine uptake for children of school years reception to year 5 shows 63.9% in school year reception age, 63.4% in school year 1 age, 61.4% in school year 2 age, 60.2% in school year 3 age, 58.0% in school year 4 age and 56.2% in school year 5 age were vaccinated by 31 January 2019

3. International situation

• in the temperate zone of the Northern hemisphere, influenza activity continued to increase with influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 predominating overall
• in the temperate zone of the Southern hemisphere, influenza activity returned to inter-seasonal levels, levels with the exception of some parts of Australia where influenza activity remained above inter-seasonal levels
• worldwide, seasonal influenza subtype A viruses accounted for the majority of detections

4. 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.