Influenza: Death
(asked on 18th March 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are estimated to have died of influenza in the last five years; and whether either (1) a monthly, or (2) a quarterly, breakdown of those figures is available for each such year.
The number of flu cases and deaths as a result of related complications varies each flu season. The average number of estimated deaths in England over the last five seasons (2014/15 to 2018/19) was 17,000 deaths annually. This ranged from 1,692 deaths last season (2018/19) to 28,330 deaths in 2014/15. Of these deaths, many were in people with underlying health conditions.
The following table shows the number of deaths associated with influenza observed through the FluMOMO algorithm with confidence intervals, England, 2014 to 2015 season to 2018 to 2019.
Season | All ages | 0-4 years | 5-14 years | 15-64 years | 65+ years |
2014/15 | 28,330 (27,462 to 29,208) | 91 (79 to 104) | 13 (9 to 18) | 701 (635 to 769) | 25,143 (24,368 to 25926) |
2015/16 | 11,875 | 84 | 11 (6 to 16) | 1,259 (1,178 to 1,342) | 9,459 (8,941 to 9,987) |
2016/17 | 18,009 | 77 (66 to 89) | 20 (14 to 26) | 578 (519 to 639) | 15,167 (14,546 to 15,798) |
2017/18 | 26,403 (17,260 to 18,768) | 6 93 to 10) | 2 (0 to 5) | 1,462 (1,373 to 1,553) | 22,237 (21,482 to 23,000) |
2018/19* | 1,692 (1,352 to 2,056) | 3 (0 to 7) | 10 (6 to 15) | 192 (142 to 241) | 914 (666 to 1,186) |
*Data up to epidemiological week 15 2019
Notes:
- Source: Surveillance of Influenza and other respiratory viruses in the UK 2018 to 2019 report,
- The above annual data is modelled data.
Influenza related mortality data from hospital confirmed deaths are published weekly, but the modelled data on all deaths due to flu related complications are not available at a monthly or quarterly level. However, a weekly flu report is published throughout the flu season, providing information, data on flu cases and cases of mortality.