Older people urged to get flu jab after data reveals nearly 4,000 deaths from horror winter

Older Brits have been urged to get their flu jab and "not get complacent" after new data uncovered thousands of deaths caused by the virus.

The new figures from the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) included in its annual report have revealed that 3,798 people died from the flu last winter. An additional 13,048 were hospitalised during the season, with admissions peaking towards the end of the year, and the vast majority caused by an unknown subtype of the most common strain of the virus, influenza A.

That toll could have been much higher, the agency found, were it not for the country's extensive vaccination programme, which prevented an estimated more than 100,000 admissions and more than 7,000 deaths.

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The vast majority of deaths last year were reported among older Brits aged 65 and over, with 3,442 of the total attributed to the age group. The remainder of deaths were among the much larger age group covering people aged 15 to 64, with 346, while three people aged between five and 14 died from the virus, and seven aged between zero and four.

Hospital admission rates were also highest among the same group, with the oldest Brits making up the largest burden amongst the population.

During the same season, Covid killed 8,000 people in the UK, with up to 26,000 hospitalisations reported by NHS England alone, again primarily impacting the oldest Brits. The epidemiological report found that vaccination rate coverage for the flu was high among the over 65 Brits, but still far from total, with rates ranging from 71 percent to 75 percent by home nation.

This is despite the overall vaccine effectiveness in adults being lower than the previous winter, having fallen to 21 percent from 34 percent the preceding year.

Effectiveness was slightly higher - more than 50 percent - among children, who are known to spread flu to older age groups, leading them to become very ill themselves. The infection situation could have been much worse, the official figures show, with thousands of lives saved and hundreds of thousands of hospitalisations prevented by the national vaccination programme.

They estimate that 104,000 hospital admissions were prevented, on top of an excess 7,100 deaths during the season, which started during the second half of October.

UKHSA figures also show the vaccine for RSV - which causes 5,000 to 7,900 deaths per year in the UK amongst older Brits - was around 82 percent effective at preventing hospital admissions among older adults aged 75 to 79. Reacting to the data, Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, called on older people to take the vaccine.

She said: "Nearly 4,000 deaths linked to flu in a single winter is a stark reminder that these seasonal viruses should never be dismissed as just a bad cold, particularly in later life."

"With flu cases continuing to increase, vaccinations are still one of the most effective ways we have of protecting ourselves against serious illness.