There's concern in England about a significant rise in the number of patients admitted to hospital with the flu compared to this time last year.
A 352-percent rise, to be exact.
Lewis Foster has been catching up with Dr Ross Keat, Consultant and Deputy Director of Public Health Isle of Man, about how the Island is faring.
So I guess it's complex and quite multi-factorial but I would say that a likely reason for the increase at this time of year is due to the fact that vaccination rates in the UK current data indicates that they're down. So from about 77% to 71% and also the current vaccine program this year doesn't include those aged 50 to 65. So in general there are fewer people vaccinated as a result. And just a 6% drop in vaccination rates that can have that kind of effect can it? Well if you consider the drop in over 65s by that amount there are obviously different cohorts of individuals so those who are immunocompromised and children as well but we're seeing in the UK a similar trend across all of these groups so a general reduction and then also if you remove that whole cohort between 50 and 65 who may have been eligible next year that could actually result in quite a large percentage decrease in the number of people being vaccinated. And so the obvious question after that is how is it looking on the Isle of Man? How are we fairing so far for flu numbers? In terms of drawing parallels to the Isle of Man we haven't seen a similar trend here but obviously we're keeping a really close eye on how things progress in touch with our colleagues at Nobles Hospital looking for an increase in cases and those working in primary care as well so our GP partners yeah we're not seeing anything similar at this particular point in time. Any concerns to be drawn from that though about the weeks ahead? Well I mean I would say that the best thing that people can do in order to try and prevent any stresses on their health care system over here or being unwell is to check on the Isle of Man public health website to see if you're eligible for vaccination and if you are eligible to contact your GP practice or the vaccination hub depending on your eligibility and you know get a vaccine because that is the simplest and most effective way to reduce your risk of influenza infection this season and I suppose from a public health perspective we're constantly horizon scanning to ensure that we're prepared for any potential outbreak. You mentioned vaccine numbers vaccine intake is down in England is that similar over here as well this year? In terms of vaccine numbers on the island the way that the data is recorded means that a lot of the vaccines are drawn into the same data pool and then we have to pull out individual data and that tends to happen at the end of the year so at the moment we are seeing a trend year on year from 21-22 to now so the last full set of data that I have access to being last years which indicate that year on year we're seeing a similar decrease to the United Kingdom in terms of vaccine uptake so I would say from inference that it's probably very similar in terms of uptake on the island being down to a similar percentage that it is in the UK. And you might have touched on this before apologies but we're talking about the cases in England they're saying they're highest in 5 to 14 year olds why is it that age group in particular is susceptible? Well that's quite a difficult one to answer and I'm not sure that we quite have an answer for that yet so the number of vaccines that have been given in school children last year is similar I mean that doesn't tend to be up to 15 years of age but it's offered through the school vaccination program to younger children but it could be linked to the fact that again we have a lower number of people vaccinated which means a higher amount of circulating disease which then means that you will also get an increase in in all cohorts but I suppose that you know schools are an area where spread of illness can happen quite rapidly and you know this is the time of year where lots of children inside in classrooms and that's you know that's a real opportunity for the spread of influenza and you mentioned to get a flu vaccine if possible if eligible but what other advice have you got for for people going forward this winter? Well so obviously vaccination the number one way to to reduce your own risk and the risk to those around you your loved ones but it's also important to keep up healthy behaviors to reduce the spread of any respiratory on this as light flu but also that includes COVID respiratory syncytal virus and indeed other seasonal illnesses like norovirus so it's just really important so you know respiratory etiquette so if you're coughing sneezing making sure you're catching that in a hankier in the crook of your arm if you do feel unwell try and stay away from the workplace or from school to not spread it to other people and then other things like washing your hands regularly for 20 seconds you know after you've used the bathroom you know these sort of simple things that you can do to reduce the potential spread of viruses at this time of year is really important. Talking about flu numbers but many people have seen on the front of various newspapers this morning this term quad-demic you know what exactly is meant by that. Well I suppose that that's referring to the fact that we have four seasonal illnesses which are currently circulating in relatively high numbers in the UK so that includes influenza respiratory syncytal virus or RSV norovirus and COVID-19 now a lot of the messaging around you know respiratory etiquette like I touched on before and making sure that you have good hand hygiene that that is common across all of these illnesses but of course three of these will have groups of individuals who can go and have vaccinations so that's flu RSV and COVID so by getting vaccinated practicing good hygiene and staying informed we can all act together as a community and support our healthcare system during what is always a challenging period for the healthcare system. 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