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Flu cases in England this winter have fallen to levels not seen in more than 130 years.
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New data from the Sunday Times shows that the prevalence of flu is about 95% lower than normal.
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Experts believe the number of cases is low due to ongoing lockdown restrictions and social distance measures.
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As cases of coronavirus continue to increase in England this winter, the number of people suffering from the flu has dropped to levels not seen in more than 130 years, experts told the Sunday Times.
Medical experts said flu appears to have “almost completely wiped out” after rates fell by as much as 95%.
According to data from the Times, the number of people reporting flu-like illness to their primary care physician was 1.1 per 100,000 people, compared to a five-year average rate of 27.
The data is from the second week of January, which is normally the peak time of the flu season when thousands of people are hospitalized.
The number of hospital admissions in England for influenza was zero in mid-January.
“I can’t think of a year this happened,” Simon de Lusignan, professor of primary care at the University of Oxford told the Times.
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John McCauley, director of the World Health Organization Collaboration Center in London, told the Times the collapse in numbers was “unprecedented.”
But while this may be good news in general, some scientists developing a vaccine for next year’s flu season are having a hard time because of the few samples they have to work on now.
“It’s a nightmare to find out what comes next,” McCauley said. ‘If you have the flu for a year, the immunity has decreased. It could come back worse. ‘
Experts have previously said that flu rates have been lower this year due to ongoing lockdown restrictions and social distance measures.
The country’s low flu rates make a big difference from coronavirus cases.
According to a tracker from Johns Hopkins University, nearly 4 million people have contracted the virus in the UK since the start of the pandemic and more than 105,000 have died.
The country, which has been in a third lockdown since the beginning of January, is aggressively conducting vaccinations. More than 8 million people have already received their first dose, according to a government website.
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