Alert in the United Kingdom due to a mutation of the flu virus

Flu cases continue to increase for another week in Spain: the incidence rises by 32%

The flu season has started early in United Kingdom this year. As happened recently in Japan and what could be happening in Canada, The country is reporting an unusual increase in cases.

Specifically, the positivity of tests carried out on patients – when it rises it is usually related to increasing community transmission – has passed from 4.81% on September 29 to 11.64% on October 27.

And the hospitalization rate has also increased from 0.82 per 100,000 inhabitants to 3.81and that of admission to the ICU, from 0.03 to 0.12in that same period of time.

This preview of the season has caused the National Health System (NHS) in England –one of the four nations that make up the United Kingdom– has issued an “SOS”at the beginning of November, urging the target population to get vaccinated as soon as possible, since The worst of the epidemic could occur in “a few weeks.”

Specifically, the director of the NHS in England, Jim Mackey, would have commented that there is no doubt that the country will face a long and prolonged season and that this winter will be one of the toughest, according to the BBC.

New mutation

A media outlet that recently published an article in which experts warned that this could be the worst epidemic in the last decade.

“We haven’t seen a virus like this in a long time. This dynamic is unusual,” the teacher commented to the British network Nicola Lewisdirector of the World Influenza Center at the Francis Crick Institute.

“It does worry me, of course,” she indicated and added: “I’m not panicking, but I am worried.”

And the reason that could explain this increase in cases is the spread of a mutation of the influenza A (H3N2), detected in June in the northern hemisphere, which could be causing more infections than expected and an earlier season in several countries, including the United Kingdom.

Vaccination

Therefore, experts recommend resorting to the most useful tool against this type of epidemic: vaccination.

And although the doses may lose some effectiveness in stopping infections, as they are not designed taking this mutation into account, the doctor Mary Ramsaydirector of public health programs at the UK Health Security Agency, reminds the BBC that “whatever the strains that circulate here this winter, we can trust that will continue to provide some protection the most vulnerable so that they do not develop serious illnesses or be hospitalized.

“It is better to have some protection than none, but it is likely that this year it will be less than in others with better results,” adds the professor. Christopher Fraserfrom the Institute of Pandemic Sciences at the University of Oxford.