Nearly everyone in the UK has been left bed-bound with the flu at some point in the last few months and now scientists have worked out why so many people are getting ill.
The NHS has already issued a number of warnings about this new strain of super flu, making it clear that thousands of vulnerable people could die this winter – in what has been described as one of the worst flu seasons in decades.
People might have binned their masks since the Coronavirus pandemic, but the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has now recommended donning the face coverings once again in an effort to help stop the spread of this dangerous new strain.
Hospitalisations are massively on the rise across England and Scotland, with GPs across the UK overwhelmed by the sheer number of flu patients they are treating compared to previous years.
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Usually we are fairly prepared for flu season, thanks in part to the flu vaccine which is made available to vulnerable people – such as the elderly and immunosuppressed – each year.
However, as many thousands more Brits now fall victim to the bug, it seems as if this year's strain has evolved in a way scientists didn't predict when the vaccine was developed back in February.
If you're lucky enough to have avoided suffering the super flu and its horrible effects, it has been described as a 'hotter, nastier' virus which is more impactful on the population.
Flu also develops very suddenly and quickly compared to a cold, causing a range of symptoms from extreme tiredness to fever, with more severe side effects including body aches, vomiting and diarrhoea.
This new strain, which is known as 'subclade K', is the reason why this year's flu season feels like the worst in some time.
It is a mutated form of the influenza A H3N2 virus which spread throughout the UK during the summer for the first time since 2022 – meaning herd immunity is out of the question in this case.
There is therefore very little natural protection against the virus and in a recent government study, 420 out of 554 people who had the flu were found to be suffering from the new K strain of H3N2.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said: “Even if the individual risk of severe illness remains similar to previous years, a larger epidemic driven by lower immunity to infection could still result in a higher absolute number of hospitalisations and increased pressure on healthcare services.”
This year's vaccine is falling short of total protection because of the various mutations in this latest strain, something scientists were unable to predict when they decided what to shield against at the Francis Crick Institute back in February.
Although health experts are still encouraging people to get vaccinated, the virus is deviating wildly from its expected course, which suggests the number of infections is only going in one direction.
James Moorhouse