Weekly pandemic flu media update

24 September 2009

KEY POINTS

• The rates of flu-like illness and related activity have shown further increases in England.
• The flu-like illness rate in England from the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) scheme increased to 16.2 per 100,000 in week 38. Most age groups saw an increase.
• This week, the antiviral collection numbers in the National Pandemic Flu Service have continued to increase and this has been seen in all age groups under 65. Once again, the biggest increase has been seen in the 5-15 year old age group with antiviral collections again doubling from 2,886 to 5,580.
• Interpretation of data to produce estimates on the number of new cases continues to be subject to a considerable amount of uncertainty. HPA modelling gives an estimate of 9,000 new cases in England last week (range 5,000 to 20,000).  This is the second weekly increase since week 30.
  This estimate incorporates data from National Pandemic Flu Service and GP consultations.
• Sharp rises in influenza activity in recent weeks are reported from the USA - concentrated particularly in school age children. Increasing activity has also been reported in a number of European countries, particularly France.