Sources of UK flu data

In the United Kingdom the surveillance of influenza is co-ordinated and collated by the HPA Influenza Surveillance Section, Respiratory Disease Department, HPA Centre for Infections (CfI).  As influenza is not a notifiable disease and can cause a wide range of illness from a very mild or asymptomatic infection to a very serious illness which can result in hospitalisation and death, several sources of data are used to understand influenza activity in the UK.  During the influenza season data from these sources are included in the weekly national influenza reports and graphs. Many of the data sources have been used for several years and some new systems were introduced in response to the pandemic in 2009 (for further information on the pandemic please see the swine flu pages). This page describes the sources used; scroll through or click on the links below as required.