MORE than a hundred people have lost their lives to flu so far this winter as eight million are hit by the bug, new figures reveal.
In the last week flu deaths have soared by 41 per cent with 17 new fatalities – bringing the total deaths this winter to 120, new figures confirmed today.
Last week more than 4,500 people were admitted to hospital with flu – up 11 per cent on the previous seven days.
More than 60 per cent (2,754 patients) were suffering influenza B, the vast majority caused by Japanese flu, the latest figures reveal.
Another 361 people were admitted with deadly Aussie flu, with 20 fighting for their lives in intensive care with the H3N2 strain.
Some 8.3 million people are thought to have been struck down by flu over the past week, according to the online tool FluSurvey.
According to the Royal College of GPs flu admissions across the UK are up 150 per cent since the start of 2018, according to their data.
About 31,000 patients visited their doctor with flu-like symptoms between January 8-14, a rise of more than 9,000 on the previous week.
It takes the total to more than 1.7m patients seen by GPS so far this flu season.
The worst hit regions include Birmingham, Norwich, Nottingham, Manchester, York, Newcastle, Bristol, Portsmouth and Canterbury, their data shows.
Flusurvey relies on 7,500 members of the public reporting when they are suffering flu-like symptoms – so the true number of flu cases is likely to be higher.
An epidemic can only be declared by the Chief Medical Officer for England, Dame Sally Davies – and GP consultations would need to reach a rate of more than 100 cases per 100,000 people.
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