# 6820
While the United States and Canada have reported an early start to the flu season this year, influenza has yet to take off in Hong Kong (see latest Flu Express (Week 52, 2012), and in the UK and parts of Europe the flu season is just now starting to pick up.
The RED LINE indicates this year’s activity, compared to previous years. The Blue Line indicates the unusually severe 1999-2000 flu season.
This latest flu updates from the HPA.
HPA National Influenza Report
Report published 3 January 2013
Figures (including all those found in this report) displaying data from these schemes are available to download as a pdf file:
HPA Weekly National Influenza Graphs (PDF, 713 KB)
PDF versions of previous reports are available on the archive page.
This week's report is available as a pdf:
HPA National Influenza Report - week 1 (2013) (PDF, 665 KB)
A summary report will be published weekly. For further information on the surveillance schemes mentioned in this report, please see the Sources of UK Flu Data page.
Increases continue to be seen for several indicators of influenza activity. A letter has been issued to the NHS that GPs may now prescribe antiviral medicines for the prophylaxis and treatment of influenza in accordance with NICE guidance.
Flu activity update: 3 January 2013
3 January 2013
Latest figures from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) up to 30 December 2012 show that flu activity continues to increase based on a number of indicators, including GP consultation rates in England and the proportion of calls to NHS Direct.
The latest figures show that GP consultation rates have increased slightly from 27.4 per 100,000 in week 51 to 32.7 per 100,000 in week 52 ending on 30 December. Meanwhile, 2.1% of the calls received by NHS Direct concerned influenza compared to 1.6% in week 51.
Professor John Watson, head of the respiratory disease department at the HPA said:
“Over the Christmas period we have seen a slight rise in flu activity across several of our indicators in line with the trend we expect to see at this time of year.
“However, the latest data should be interpreted with caution due to GP practices being closed on the bank holidays which may have impacted on GP consultation rates.
Elsewhere in Europe, the most recent EuroFlu report states:
Influenza activity is increasing slowly in the WHO European Region
Summary, week 51/2012
Influenza activity is slowly increasing with more countries in different parts of the Region reporting sporadic co-circulation of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2) and type B viruses. This week the reporting of influenza surveillance data is incomplete due to the Christmas holidays. This is reflected in the lower number of testing performed. However the percentage of influenza-positive samples from both sentinel and non-sentinel sources are similar to last week. The number of reported hospitalizations due to severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) remains similar to that seen in the previous several weeks: 1 influenza detection was reported (influenza B).
