Influenza

Mr. Ancram
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many new cases of influenza were diagnosed in December and January of the year (a) 2008-09, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2006-07.

Dawn Primarolo
Information on cases of influenza-like illness (ILI) is collected by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) on a weekly basis. The information requested is shown in the following table as rates of new cases of ILI per 100,000 general practitioner (GP) population for the four weeks of December and the four weeks of January. The information relates to England and Wales.

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|        |2006-07|2007-08|2008-09|
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|December|9.9    |15.6   |27.5   |
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|        |8.4    |14.1   |40.6   |
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|        |8.8    |21.8   |68.5   |
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|        |7.8    |20.1   |41.3   |
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|        |       |       |       |
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|January |17.2   |30.1   |49.1   |
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|        |20.6   |30.5   |43.9   |
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|        |16.2   |19     |30.4   |
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|        |16.3   |15.1   |17.5   |
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The Health Protection Agency publishes weekly national influenza reports, incorporating RCGP data, on the website

www.hpa.org.uk