H3N2 Makes Its Way To The UK

The NHS is preparing for the worst as a difficult and deadly strain of the flu makes its way from Australia to the UK. It is expected to be transmitted via travelers and tourists from Australia to the UK. In the biggest flu outbreak Australia has ever seen, the H3N2 flu virus infected 70,000 people this past winter (summer in the Northern Hemisphere) and killed more than 370. The H3N2 flu virus is the same one that was responsible for the 1968 outbreak in Hong Kong that killed over a million people. The virus is mutating quickly, in a process called antigenic shift, and there are concerns that this year's vaccine will thus be ineffective.

The NHS has already had a very difficult year, with too many patients and too little funding. There are approximately 3.83 million people on the waiting list for hospital care and NHS staff and administrators fears that a H3N2 outbreak could completely overwhelm the NHS. Dr. Nick Scriven said, "If, as we expect, we see a flu outbreak, I think the NHS – in terms of both beds and clinical staff – will break far worse than last year and elective activity will almost certainly cease for several months." Elderly and immunocompromised populations are unsurprisingly most at risk of H3N2 infection, but there has also been a spike in infection rates in children between the ages of 5 and 9.

- Emma Mathers

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4972556/Major-flu-outbreak-routine-operations-suspended-months-doctors.html