Cases of flu are skyrocketing across the country, including in Greater Manchester.
Data warns that thousands of people are coming down with the illness so severely that they are being taken to hospital. Health service chiefs have said it could be seeing the worst ever winter flu season, with Greater Manchester seeing almost three times the number of people in hospital with flu compared to this time last year.
Cases of flu are much higher than last year and, according to one Greater Manchester GP, ‘the concern is that it’s rising and we don’t know where it’s going to stop’. “In the first week of December, we saw a 360% rise in hospital admissions for flu compared to last year. That’s a huge increase,” explained Bolton GP Dr Helen Wall.
“We always see a spike in winter, so we expect that. But we’ve had much higher rates, and much earlier on in the year. If that had continued alongside RSV, Covid, and norovirus, we’d be in a really difficult place.
“We are in a pressured place, but Covid and RSV have tailed off. Flu is still causing us problems though.”
An average of 4,469 patients were in England’s hospitals with flu in the week ending Sunday December 29, according to the latest official figures. That’s five-times as many cases as the same time last year when there were an average of 942 in hospital with flu, and is more than double the average at the same time in 2022 when there were 2,088 flu patients in hospital.
Greater Manchester is also experiencing far more cases this year. There were an average of 197.3 patients with flu in the region’s hospital beds in the week ending December 29.
That’s up from 150.7 a week earlier and is almost three times as many as the same time last year when there was an average of 69.4. In 2022 however, there were an average of 406.4 patients in hospital with flu over the same seven day period.
Dr Helen Wall is a GP partner
(Image: Dr Helen Wall)
There are key symptoms to watch out for, which can distinguish between whether you have a regular cold, Covid-19, or that you are coming down with the flu.
“Flu can come on quite strongly. You’ll be fine one minute and then start feeling feverish even though you’re really warm,” says Dr Wall.
“Then you might start with a cough, runny nose, feeling congested, tired and achy. People say they’ve had flu but have managed to carry on working or go shopping.
“With real flu, you’re going to end up in bed. You’re not going to be up and about, you’re going to be so tired it’ll be a struggle to get out of bed.
“With Covid, the loss of taste and smell that were big symptoms at the start of the pandemic are becoming more of a feature again. Because many people have had Covid several times, most people with Covid are experiencing it as they’re getting on with life but just have a bit of a cough – they might not even realise. Flu tends to completely wipe you out.”
There are some crucial ‘red flags’ to look out for that might mean you need to go to hospital. “The red flags I look for are if you’re not able to breathe properly, or being so dehydrated that you’re not able to pass urine, becoming very confused, collapsing. These are the reasons people are going into hospitals,” said Dr Wall.
“A&Es are busy, but people aren’t being admitted for no reason. These people will be needing oxygen tanks and drips, they’re really ill and need to be there.”
An average of 4,469 patients were in England’s hospitals with flu in the week ending Sunday December 29, according to the latest official figures
(Image: WalesOnline/ Rob Browne)
Dr Wall told the Manchester Evening News how a combination of low vaccine uptake – and the reality that the vaccine does not cover all of possible strains of flu – has led to a huge spike in cases. “Flu is changing constantly, it evolves so frequently. Every year we try to match the strains, but we don’t always get it right or get every single strain.
“There’s still potential for you to get flu and be really quite unwell.”
Even so, the number of people taking advantage of getting some protection from a flu jab are down. “Hitting the 95% of people vaccinated mark which the World Health Organisation sets out for herd immunity is hard, uptake on the flu vaccine is never where we’d like it to be,” Dr Wall explained.
“The difficulty has been selling it to people who are clinically at risk but under 65, who have been slow to come forward for it, if at all. Uptake among over 65s has been slightly down but only by a few percent, not drastically. Care home uptake has been good.
“We started the flu programme slightly later because we set off with RSV vaccinations first, so there has been a bit of a lag.
“But now, we’re not really sure what we expect to see.”