Via The Guardian: Flu deaths continue to rise. Excerpt:
The government has been forced to take new steps to tackle seasonal flu after new figures showed there were 12 more deaths in the past week, and 738 people seriously ill in hospital.
The total number of deaths from this winter's outbreak now stands at 39, up from 27 last week, the Health Protection Agency confirmed.
Of those, 36 died from H1N1 swine flu, which is the most virulent of the two main flu strains circulating this winter. The other three died from Influenza B. All but one of the 39 was under 65, and four were under five years old.
The government will now reintroduce a media campaign to help tackle the outbreak. Labour, which earlier this week claimed the campaign had been axed, accused the government of a U-turn.
Some 61% of this year's victims were in one of the "at risk" groups who qualify for a free NHS seasonal flu jab, which include pregnant women, those with breathing conditions such as asthma and those whose immune systems are weak.
But just two of the 23 individuals had received the jab, which for the first time this year includes protection against swine flu, which claimed hundreds of lives when it began circulating in the UK in early 2009.
The figure serves to underline doctors' concerns that millions of people run the risk of infection, with potentially serious effects, because they have not been vaccinated.
The number of people with known or suspected flu being treated in critical care units in hospitals has jumped from 460 to 738 - a rise of 278 in a week.
