There are fears over the Winter flu reaching epidemic level across the country. The county of Gloucestershire has been officially hit by the dreaded flu. Public Health England, showed a growing number of cases over the past 2 weeks. This is starting to shape up to be the worst case of influenza in the last 50 years.
Dr Jeremy Welch, NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Governing Body GP, said:
“It’s really important that people who are most vulnerable to health complications associated with flu protect themselves by getting vaccinated.
Even people whose health conditions are well managed and who lead otherwise healthy lives should still have the flu vaccine – it’s free because you need it.”
Dorchester and the City of London are the last remaining places without reports of flu like symptoms.
One elderly Cheltenham man said: ‘I always get the flu jab; I’ve never had the flu’.
While another mother said that she was not giving her young son the jab as she didn’t believe it really helped prevent the flu, and the side effects were just as bad.
A strain of influenza called ‘Aussie flu’ is a particular concern, which has led to a surge in A&E admissions. 17 people are being admitted to intensive care because of it. There are 2 parts of the UK that hasn’t been hit by the dread Aussie flu. Gloucestershire, being part of the un-infected area has suffered a wide outbreak of influenza, concerns that the Aussie Flu will spread to the County.
Flu kills 8,000 people every year in the UK. It is feared to be much higher this year.
People who are elderly, have existing health conditions, children under 5 and pregnant women are more likely to develop flu-related complications.
There are fears that Britain could see an epidemic like France has seen. The flu there has already killed more than 30 people and put 11,500 others in hospital.
Updates by Adam McLoughlin: https://jmag.glos.ac.uk/gloucestershire-…for-flu-outbreak/
