Aussie flu claims its first deaths in Ireland

The deadly ‘Aussie flu’ currently sweeping Britain has already claimed lives in Ireland, it has emerged.

Doctors in the UK have warned that it could be the worst outbreak of the bug in 50 years, as official figures revealed cases more than doubled in just one week.

Government statistics show 1,111 people were struck down with flu as temperatures dropped last week – a 156 per cent jump on the previous seven days.

Doctors in the UK have warned that it could be the worst outbreak of the bug in 50 years, as official figures revealed cases more than doubled in just one week (stock image)

Although the number of flu-related deaths recorded in Ireland so far is under ten, 73 people have been hospitalised and the Irish Health Service Executive is urging people to get vaccinated.

HOW MUCH PRESSURE IS THE NHS UNDER?

Earlier this month, NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, said hospitals will be ‘sorely tested’ this winter.

Its comments were provoked by chief executives of two hospitals who admitted their bed occupancy rates are 98 per cent and 99 per cent respectively.

And concerned doctors warned patients will have to ‘sleep, take paracetamol and pray’ ahead of the impending winter crisis.

The NHS is expected to face unprecedented pressure in the coming months, as campaigners fear it will be disastrous amid soaring waiting lists in A&E.

The worries follow last year’s winter crisis, which saw health secretary Jeremy Hunt beg people to stay away from turmoil-hit hospitals.

The Red Cross branded the situation a ‘humanitarian crisis’ – a term used to describe the devastating civil war in Syria and Yemen.

In a statement, the executive said the number of reported cases of flu had increased in the week before Christmas and that flu ‘is now actively circulating in Ireland’.

Director of the HSE’s Health Protection Surveillance Centre Dr Kevin Kelleher told RTE the executive has been informed of a ‘small number of deaths directly related to influenza (less than ten)’ in the last two weeks.

The executive is urging people, particularly those in high-risk groups, to make sure they are vaccinated.

These include people aged 65 and over; anyone with a chronic illness; all pregnant women as well as people in care homes or long stay facilities.

Meanwhile, figures released by Public Health England show a sharp rise in cases, triggered by a surge in two aggressive subtypes attacking the population simultaneously.

One includes the so-called ‘Aussie flu’, a strain of influenza A which wreaked havoc on hospitals in Australia during the country’s winter.

The H3N2 subtype triggered two and a half times the normal number of cases in Australia. Britain’s flu season tends to mirror what has happened there.

Experts fear the virulent flu strain, which has now reached the UK, could prove as deadly as the Hong Kong flu in 1968, which killed one million people.

Usually, just one subtype, either influenza A or B, is responsible for the majority of cases. It spreads much easier in the cold weather.

But last week 522 cases of influenza A and 546 of influenza B were recorded across England and Wales. Some 43 cases are yet to be identified.

However, this winter’s outbreak shows no signs of slowing down, as flu cases are expected to rocket even further in the coming weeks.

NHS PREPARES FOR THE WORST FLU OUTBREAK IN 50 YEARS

The dreaded Aussie flu outbreak that the NHS is preparing for will be the worst in 50 years, experts warned in September.

Some A&E units in Australia had ‘standing room only’ after being swamped by more than 100,000 cases of the H3N2 strain.

Professor Robert Dingwall, a public health expert at Nottingham Trent University, said it is ‘inevitable’ it will reach Britain.

He said it could claim as many lives as the Hong Kong flu outbreak in 1968, which killed at least one million people.

Professor Dingwall told The Daily Express: ‘Based on the Australian experience public health officials need to meet and urgently review emergency planning procedures.

‘Public Health England should be working with local authorities and local health services to ensure more hospital beds are freed up. We need to be prepared, alert and flexible.

‘There is no point in trying to close the borders. It’s almost inevitable this will come to us.

‘This is potentially the worst winter since the Hong Kong flu outbreak of 1968.

‘Lots of people have been very badly affected in Australia and whilst their mortality rates are not out yet we suspect this is a more severe strain than most other years.’

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