Weekly national seasonal respiratory report - Week 45 2022 - Weekly national seasonal respiratory report - Publications - Public Health Scotland - ISS-G20 Laboratorium Repository

About this release

This release is a weekly report on epidemiological information on seasonal respiratory infection activity in Scotland. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, health care services are functioning differently now compared to previous flu seasons so the consultation rates are not directly comparable to historical data.

Main points

Overall assessment:

• Activity levels from NHS24 calls for respiratory symptoms cannot be accurately assessed for week 45 due to incomplete data. This has been caused by a technical issue on 09/11/2022, which had prevented the electronic collection of data for call reason on that day. Data for week 45 will remain incomplete in subsequent publications. The data presented for week 45, may not be comparable to both previous and subsequent weeks.
• Influenza incidence remained at Low activity level overall.

• • There were 230 influenza cases: 192 type A (subtype unknown), 17 A(H1N1)pdm09, 16 A(H3) and five type B. This compares to 213 laboratory-confirmed cases reported during week 44.
• Seasonal coronavirus (non-SARS-CoV-2), HMPV and Mycoplasma pneumoniae remained at Baseline activity level.
• Parainfluenza decreased from Low to Baseline activity level.
• RSV, adenovirus and rhinovirus remained at Low activity level.
• The number of laboratory-confirmed RSV cases was 249. This compares with 236 laboratory-confirmed cases in week 44.

• • Two NHS Boards were at Baseline, five were at Low, five were at Moderate, one was at High and one was at Extraordinary activity level.
  • The under 1 age group remained at Low activity level. The 1-4 age group decreased from Moderate to Low activity level. The 5-14, 45-64, 65-74 and over 75 age groups remained at Moderate activity level. The 15-44 age group increased from Moderate to High activity level.
  • The majority (52.2%) of RSV detections in week 45 were in those aged under 5 years and the majority (81.1%) of diagnoses across all age groups occurred in the hospital setting.
• The hospitalisation rate for influenza has been generally increasing since week 25 and was 2.0 per 100,000 in week 44, with the highest hospital admission rate for confirmed influenza noted in patients aged less than one year old (10.3 per 100,000). The current hospitalisation rate for influenza is lower than that for the five previous seasons prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The hospitalisation rate for RSV was 2.4 per 100,000 in week 44, with the highest hospital admission rate for confirmed RSV noted in patients aged less than one year old (74.0 per 100,000). The hospitalisation rate for RSV peaked in week 38 and 39 in 2021 (4.5 per 100,000).
• In the sentinel sources (CARI), rhinovirus has been the highest circulating pathogen since the start of the season and has the highest swab positivity in week 45. This was followed by RSV which has increased from week 44.
• Influenza vaccine data for the 2022/23 winter programme are now available on the PHS flu and COVID winter vaccination dashboard. These data indicate that at the end of week 45, an estimated total of 1,862,667 individuals have received their vaccine. This includes 1,496,584 eligible adults of whom 913,239 are aged 65 years and over. In addition, 92% of those receiving their COVID winter booster and eligible for flu vaccine have received both vaccines at the same appointment.
• All-cause excess mortality increased to Low activity level overall, and increased in 5-14 and 65+ age groups to Low, all other age categories remained at Baseline.

Entire content available on: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/weekly-national-seasonal-respiratory-report/weekly-national-seasonal-respiratory-report-week-45-2022/