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INFLUENZA

Find most of the information you need in these resources

Always refer to your local signed PGD's in practice, and remember the Green Book takes priority over the SPmC - and sometimes WHO takes priority over the Green Book! They don't always say the same!

Recent Updates & News

3rd April 2025: Will We See a Bird Flu Vaccine Next Year? And another relevant article: Everything You Need to Know About Bird Flu

27th March: 38.1% of frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated for influenza- GP surgeries seem to be doing the best for healthcare worker uptake according to the charts. In the other eligible flu cohorts, up to Feb 2025, The over 65's are on top at 74.9% uptake. The clinical risk groups from 6m to 65y are at 40%, pregnant women are at 35%, and 2 and 3 year olds are hovering around 40% uptake.

24th March 2025: Sheep flu!!! First case of bird flu in sheep found on UK farm

25th Feb 2025: BMJ news: Robert F Kennedy cancels flu vaccination ad campaign and key vaccine policy meeting. And at the same time, this headline: Bird flu: Two patients in US admitted to hospital with H5N1 as concerns over spread grow

(The UK has purchased 5 million bird flu vaccines, just FYI)

13th Feb 2025: The 25/26 Influenza programme information is starting to come through now - check it out!! Here's the flu letter. And here are the vaccines marketed for 25/26.

29th Nov 2024: Flu cases have jumped by three times the rates at this point last year - and it's come early too :-(

18th Nov 2024: Vaccine uptake in school children for 2023/2024 report is out. some highlights are that 52.2% (3,498,576 out of 6,708,016 ) of school-aged children who were eligible in both seasons (Reception to Year 9 combined) were vaccinated, compared with 51.9% (3,502,566 out of 6,747,523) in the 2022 to 2023 season. So, a slight increase on last year, but still way lower than we would like. The secondary school age children cohort was the highest uptake seen in a season for that group, however they were also the lowest uptake cohort out of them all at 42.9% uptake. Highest uptake last year was primary school kids at 55.1%.

12th Nov 2024: Teenager in critical condition with Canada’s first human case of bird flu

16th October 2024: Brilliant article: Is it time to freak out about bird flu?

25th October 2024: The latest weekly flu surveillance data published by UKHSA today shows flu case numbers are twice as high among school children, aged 5 to 14 years. As of 22nd October, influenza positivity - the rate of laboratory confirmed flu cases - among school children aged 5 to 14 years is higher than any other age group, at a weekly average positivity rate of 5.7% compared with a whole population weekly average of 2.5%.

16th August 2024: Well, HELLO THERE to this years flu poster :-) One of my favourite cheat sheets

5th August 2024: Information for healthcare practitioners Influenza guidance updated for 24/25 season. The training recommendations have also been updated 9th August (mainly appendix items).

2nd August 2024 the ELFHC Flu module was updated for this season.

JULY 2024 Got your head around 24/25 flu season yet? The 25/26 info is already trickling through.... here's the JCVI statement for NEXT years vaccines!! Of particular interest is this bit:

"The World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that B/Yamagata lineages are no longer circulating and are unlikely to cause future epidemics, and that inclusion of a B/Yamagata antigen as a component of influenza vaccines is no longer warranted. WHO has stated that every effort should be made to exclude this as soon as possible, across all vaccine types. To this end, manufacturers have been preparing to move to trivalent formulations. In the USA, this will happen for the 2024 to 2025 season. In the UK the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) will move to a trivalent formulation in time for the 2024 to 2025 season."

JULY 2024 PGD templates are here- and protocols

JUNE 2024 Adolescent vaccination programme in secondary schools for 2024 to 2025. Information on the adolescent vaccination programme delivered in secondary schools and the role that schools play.

JUNE 2024 Change of vaccines for 24/25. (and a good example of why you shouldn't rely 100% on what you learn on an imms update course for the coming flu season.) This changed happened 9 minutes after I clicked 'end session' on an immunisation update arghhhh!!!

But anyway. Goodbye QIVr. Hello QIVHD.

And an additional goodbye to the Yamagata strain in LAIV.

APRIL 2024 Interesting Telegraph article - avian flu - one to watch. Bird flu (or H5N1) could evolve to become a pandemic flu strain one of two ways. One, by gradually acquiring mutations that give it the ability to easily infect and spread among people, or two, by swapping genetic material with other flu viruses, such as H3N2 or H1N1, the influenza A viruses that circulate and cause illness during the flu season. That gene swapping (a process called reassortment) can occur when an animal or a person is infected at the same time with two or more flu A viruses.

MARCH 2024 Annual government flu letter arrived. Later on some amendments came along (see above).

Bits and bobs to casually drop into conversation

Did you know....

Influenza leads to hundreds of thousands of GP visits and more than ten thousand hospital stays each year.
Flu epidemics can kill thousands or even millions of people. The 1918 flu epidemic is estimated to have affected half the world's population. 40-50 million people died worldwide.
In the UK it is estimated that an average of 600 people a year die from complications of flu. In some years it is estimated that this can rise to over 10,000 deaths. The WHO estimates that between 250,000 and 500,000 people around the world die from the flu every year.
Most UK cases of flu occur between December and February.
The virus can live for around 24 hours on surfaces.
Around 1 in 3 people infected by the flu virus will not show any symptoms

INFLUENZA

Other useful links and further reading:

Recent Updates & News

Bits and bobs to casually drop into conversation