# 5285
After making headlines for several weeks in December and early January, the number of new consults for flu-like illnesses in the UK continues to drop and is now below the baseline level.
Current week’s graphs and charts at this link.
Weekly influenza report, 3 February 2011
3 February 2011
Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) indicate that flu activity has declined across the UK and is now below baseline levels in England, Wales and Scotland.
In the past week, the number of number of GP consultations in England has fallen to 24.1 per 100,000, down from 40.7 per 100,000 the previous week. The baseline level is 30 per 100,000 and the peak level was 124.4 per 100,000 in the flu report dated 30 December.
The predominant strain in circulation is now influenza B which has overtaken influenza A H1N1 2009 ‘swine flu’. The numbers of flu B cases, however, are also declining. There are very few sporadic cases of influenza A H3N2.
This drop in activity is consistent across all the surveillance systems that are used to look at levels of flu.
The total number of people who are reported to have died from flu in the UK since the season began in October has reached 395. The vast majority of the new deaths reported today (57) did not occur in the past week but will have occurred over the past six weeks. As a result of the verification process they have only been confirmed this week.
Of the 352 cases with information on age, 11 were aged less than five years; 14 were aged between 5-14; 254 aged between 15-64 and 73 were older than 64 years.
Where information is available on the fatal cases, 215 out of 299 (72 per cent) were in a clinical 'at risk' group for vaccination. Where information on vaccine status was available for this season’s trivalent vaccine, 91 out of 127 (72 per cent) had not received their jab this season.
