Flu strikes every winter, but this year something seems to be different.
A seasonal flu virus suddenly mutated in the summer. It appears to evade some of our immunity, has kick-started a flu season more than a month early, and is a type of flu that history suggests is more severe.
The NHS has now issued a “flu jab SOS” as fears grow that this will add up to a brutal winter.
There is a lot of nuance and uncertainty, but leading flu experts have told me they would not be shocked if this was the worst flu season for a decade.
“We haven’t seen a virus like this for a while, these dynamics are unusual,” says Prof Nicola Lewis, the director of the World Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute.
“It does concern me, absolutely,” she adds. “I’m not panicking, but I am worried.”
So what’s going on? And what can we do?
Scientists track the evolution of influenza viruses because they mutate constantly and the seasonal flu vaccine has to be updated each year to keep up.
This evolution happens in a rhythm known as “shift and drift”.
Most of the time the virus drifts along making minor changes and then every so often there is a sudden abrupt shift as the virus mutates substantially.
That happened in June this year.
Seven mutations appeared in a strain of H3N2 seasonal flu and led to a “fast increase” in reports of the mutated virus, says Prof Derek Smith, director of the centre for pathogen evolution at the University of Cambridge.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dr8gzdz1wo
Flu cases top alert threshold in Japan as infections spread nationwide.
Japan’s influenza cases averaged 14.90 per medical institution during the week through last Sunday, surpassing the alert threshold of 10 as infections increased across all 47 prefectures, the health ministry said.
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Friday that 57,424 influenza cases were reported nationwide for seven days from Oct. 27, 2.37 times higher than the previous week, based on data from about 3,000 designated medical institutions.
The start of this season’s influenza outbreak was declared on Oct. 3, around a month earlier than last year, with 25 prefectures logging more than 10 patients per medical institution last week.
https://japantoday.com/category/national/flu-cases-top-alert-threshold-in-japan-as-infections-spread-nationwide
NHS issues ‘jab SOS’ as experts warn thousands could die from flu this winter.
Thousands of people could die from flu this winter, experts have warned, as the UK braces for a high level of infection.
NHS leaders issued a “flu jab SOS” on Thursday, urging members of the public to get protected.
Figures show the number of deaths from flu more than doubled last winter, but this year could be even worse.
Data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed deaths from flu in the winter of 2024 to 2025 stood at 7,757 compared to 3,555 deaths the year before.
According to the UKHSA’s annual epidemiological report, this number is still lower than the 2022 to 2023 season, which stood at 15,867 deaths.