Website of the Department of Health

10 September 2009: weekly swine flu update

• This week there has been a further reduction in the rates of flu-like illness and related activity.
• Weekly GP consultation rates continued to decrease over the last week in England. 
• The majority of cases continue to be mild. There is still no sign that the virus is changing.
• 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 3,000 new cases in England last week (range 1,500 to 6,500). This estimate incorporates data from National Pandemic Flu Service and GP consultations.
• Many countries in the southern hemisphere have now passed the peak of their winter flu epidemic. Flu activity in Australia is now returning to baseline levels and in total there have been 35,897 confirmed cases and 165 deaths.
• Serological studies conducted at the WHO collaborating centres suggest that a proportion of older adults have some level of cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies to the pandemic H1N1 2009 virus.

Following the move from laboratory testing for confirmation of swine flu to clinical diagnosis of cases, the level of flu in the community is being monitored using a range of surveillance mechanisms, including the RCGP consultation rates, QSurveillance®, and the National Pandemic Flu Service.

Current plans are to issue a factual swine flu update every Thursday afternoon on the HPA website. These plans will be kept under review.

For more information visit the Health Protection Agency (HPA) website.

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