Feeling under the weather

Britain is in the midst of the worst influenza outbreak in more than a decade. I should know. I spent the week before Christmas holed up in bed feeling absolutely rotten. It took six days before I began feeling better, literally the day before we flew to Oman. In the past 10 years, the only substantial outbreak was in 1999-2000; at least until now.

As of December 23, the overall infection rate from the H3N2 strain of the influenza virus stood at 39 cases per 100,000 people within the general population. Figures released yesterday show a 75 per cent rise in people consulting doctors with flu-like symptoms compared with the previous week. The rate has leapt from 39.5 consultations per 100,000 of the population on 14 December to 69 consultations yesterday.

The UK Health Protection Agency said this week that young people are currently being struck down with the flu at three times the rate of their elders. For every 100,000 people aged 15 to 44, at least 54.4 of them have the flu, compared with 18 cases for the same number of people aged over 65. Scientists believe the higher incident of infected young people reflects a continuning Government focus on flu vacination for people over 65.

This makes sense as I certainly didn't have a flu shot this year. Until now I'd been skeptical that immunisation was worth the effort. It had been more than a decade since my last serious bout of flu. I'm not so skeptical now after feeling terribly ill for almost a week. The current outbreak is not expected to peak for another four weeks. I'm glad I'm now immune!