Cases of 'Aussie flu' rocket by 35% in a week and death toll is officially 97, figures reveal, as 15-year-old schoolboy becomes the latest victim
- Official figures shows 4,128 people were struck down across England last week
- This is compared to the 3,044 cases of influenza recorded the week before
- It comes as the flu death toll across the home nations is known to have hit 93
The dreaded flu outbreak shows no signs of stopping as cases of the killer virus have rocketed by 35 per cent in a week, official figures reveal.
Government data shows 4,128 people were struck down across England last week - compared to the 3,044 new cases recorded the week before.
It comes as the flu death toll across the home nations is now officially 97 - with many more fatalities expected in the coming weeks.
However, the total amount of deaths is likely to be much higher as laboratory tests only capture a fraction of the true number.
A 15-year-old boy, Sean Hughes, is believed to be the latest victim in Ireland, with his death adding to the country's toll of at least 10.
A 'beautiful' 18-year-old girl, from Scotland, made national headlines last week after dying from flu leading to her mother posting a heartbreaking tribute on social media.
Projections claim the flu virus will become an epidemic by the end of the month, with the UK being hit by a number of strains simultaneously.
Government data shows 4,128 people were struck down across England last week - compared to the 3,044 new cases recorded the week before
Public Health England data, released today, showed there were 4,128 confirmed cases of flu in the week ending January 14.
Some 1,785 people were found to have influenza A, 2,278 were shown to have influenza B and a further 65 were unclassified.
This winter's outbreak appears to be 16 times more severe than that of 2015/16 - when just 262 cases of flu had been recorded at the same point.
During that winter, Government figures suggested the winter flu played a role in more than 16,000 deaths. Only 577 were recorded in the previous winter.
However, this winter's outbreak shows no signs of slowing down, as flu cases are expected to rocket even further in the coming weeks.
Similar laboratory figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are released later this week. They are expected to follow similar trends.
A precise toll is unavailable for Wales. Eight have died in intensive care units in Scotland and four in Northern Ireland. A total of 85 have died in England.
The rocketing number of flu cases has been put down to a surge in two aggressive subtypes attacking the population simultaneously.
One includes the so-called 'Aussie flu', a strain of influenza A which triggered triple the number of expected cases in Australia during the country's winter.
Experts fear the virulent H3N2 strain, which has now reached the UK, could prove as deadly to humanity as the Hong Kong flu in 1968, which killed one million people.
The other is a strain of influenza B, called Yamagata and dubbed 'Japanese flu', which has been blamed for the majority of cases so far this winter.
Its rapid spread has raised concerns because it is not covered in a vaccine given to the elderly. However, experts claim it is less severe.
Usually, just one subtype, either influenza A or B, is responsible for the majority of cases. It spreads easily in the cold weather.
It is too early to say exactly what is causing the high death numbers, but a bad flu season was blamed for high numbers of winter deaths last year, when 34,300 additional deaths were seen. Experts fear the flu outbreak this year is already far worse than last year.
Flu was also blamed when 43,850 extra deaths were seen in 2014/15 in England and Wales, in a particularly bad influenza season.
Figures on Thursday showed there has been 1,938 confirmed hospital cases of flu in England so far this winter. Some 432 have been caused by H3N2.
Some 199 were caused by H1N1, which triggered the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic that killed 50 million. A further 448 strains of influenza A were unidentified.
The remaining 859 cases were caused by strains of influenza B, including 'Japanese flu', which usually produces less side effects, according to PHE data.
At the same point last year, deemed week two by health officials, just 497 people had been hospitalised by flu in England.
The flu outbreak is putting a huge strain on hospitals, with doctors warning the conditions in the NHS are the worst they have ever seen.
Patients are dying in the corridors of overcrowded A&E units because there are not enough beds, leading doctors warned in a letter to the Prime Minister last week.
Health bosses have blamed the rapidly escalating cases of flu for their controversial decision to cancel 55,000 operations last week.
The same move was also made by French officials as the European country battles an epidemic of 'exceptional magnitude'.
Experts fear H3N2 is more severe than the Swine flu pandemic of 2009 which killed nearly 300,000 people across the world.
Peter Horby, professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health at Oxford University, believes this winter 'may well be worse than others'.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline yesterday, Professor Horby said: 'Generally H3N2 tends to be a bit more severe than the H1N1 in 2009.'
His comments came as a leading virologist predicted another cold snap will fuel the spread of H3N2 and 'kick cases into another orbit'.
Professor John Oxford, of Queen Mary University in London, exclusively warned that the killer virus spreads much easier when temperatures plummet.
Forecasters believe the cold weather will continue - forcing adults to flock indoors and be surrounded by others where they can catch flu easier.
The sharp rise in flu is only expected to cause further problems for the NHS, with cases of the winter vomiting bug also continuing to soar.
Latest figures show 2,551 people have been infected with norovirus since July. The figure has raised at a steady level week-on-week since October.
Flu is also 'actively circulating' in Ireland, with less than ten people having lost their lives to the killer virus so far in this winter's outbreak.
And in the US, the flu is already gripping 36 states and has killed at least 100 people in the US, according to data released by the CDC.
Professor Oxford has also revealed he is keeping his 'fingers crossed' as he fears the current epidemic in France could replicate itself in Britain.
The European country has been rocked by an 'exceptional' outbreak, with nearly 12,000 people having been left hospitalised and more than 30 dead.
Figures show the UK is heading the same way, with scientists concerned the flu causing havoc on the over-stretched NHS is 'unpredictable'.
The Ministry of Health in France issued an alert about flu earlier this week, warning that the outbreak has still yet to reach its peak.
It read: 'The influenza epidemic is of an exceptional magnitude, by the number of cases, which risks exceeding those of the last two years.'
The rocketing cases prompted Marisol Touraine, the country's health minister, to delay non-urgent operations to free up hospital beds.
France has been rocked by an 'exceptional' outbreak, with nearly 12,000 people having been left hospitalised (the graphic shows how many people per 100,000 have been infected for each region - any more than 400 is considered an epidemic)
Public Health England data also shows the killer virus has left 1,938 in hospital - a quarter of which because of so-called 'Aussie flu'
Australia - whose winter occurs during the British summer - had one of its worst outbreaks on record, with two and a half times the normal number of cases.
Some of the country's A&E units had 'standing room only' after being swamped by more than 100,000 cases of the H3N2 strain.
The elderly with their compromised immune systems are particularly susceptible, and a spike in cases among young children has also been shown.
The flu season in the UK and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere tends to mirror what has happened in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.
The same strains of the virus will circulate north in time for the British flu season, which typically begins in November and lasts until March.
Flu viruses are constantly changing proteins on their surface to avoid detection by the body's immune system - making it more deadly.
This transformation is called an 'antigenic shift' if it's large enough, and can lead to a pandemic. This was responsible for the swine flu outbreak in 2009.
The Aussie flu is transforming quickly, but not fast enough for experts to describe it as a shift. However, it is slowly building up immunity.
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