Britain is being battered by a surge in flu cases, with experts warning ‘there is no peak in sight’.
Flu hospitalisations have risen more than half in just one week, plunging the NHS into a ‘worst case scenario’ situation for December, new figures reveal today.
An average of 2,660 patients per day were in a hospital bed with flu last week—the highest ever for this time of year and up 55 per cent up on last week.
It means there are enough flu patients each day to fill more than three whole hospital trusts.
Surveillance programmes that monitor the UK’s outbreak suggest flu hospital admissions in England are more than double last year over the same time period and ten times higher than 2023.
It’s prompted health leaders to warn that the UK could be facing the worst flu season for decades.
Professor Paul Hunter, a virologist at the University of East Anglia: ‘Given the early upswing in infections, the new variant and what we know from elsewhere in the world, like Australia who experienced their flu season a few months ago, it does look as if this year will be as bad as we have seen at least in the last decade.’
With concerns rising by the day, here’s everything you need to know about the mutant flu—and how to protect yourself from the virus.
What is H3N2 and why is this strain more concerning?
The strain, dubbed subclade K or the ‘super flu’ by others, is the one widely in circulation at the moment and is in part behind the rise in cases.
The strain has mutated seven times over the summer, helping it to evade previous immunity, sparking alarm among experts.
These genetic mutations have made it ‘hotter’ and ‘nastier’, virologists warned, making it more infectious.
It is also different to flu strains seen in the UK in recent years, meaning people are less immune if they contract it, because their body is unfamiliar with the virus.
Professor Punam Mangtani, a professor of epidemiology and a specialist in the spread of influenza at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: ‘H3N2 is less like the one seen in 2024’s flu season.
‘This means there may be a bit less immunity already in the population.
‘So the virus can transmit and infect people more easily and could be a reason why cases have risen earlier than last year.’
