Syndromic surveillance summary: 17 November 2022 week 45
Updated 5 January 2023
Reporting week 45: 7 November to 13 November 2022
During week 45, a range of acute respiratory infection indicators increased particularly in children aged 5 to 14 years and there were further increases noted in emergency department attendances for influenza-like illness in adults. Further decreases were observed across COVID-19-like syndromic indicators.
Remote health advice syndromic surveillance system
During week 45, NHS 111 calls and online assessments for a range of syndromic respiratory indicators increased, particularly in children aged 1 to 4 and 5 to 14 years. Of note, cold and flu calls and online assessments increased sharply. There were also increases observed in ‘potential COVID-19’ calls and online assessments in the 5 to 14 years age group during week 45.
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GP in hours syndromic surveillance system
During week 45, GP in-hours consultation rates for upper respiratory tract infections increased, particularly in children aged 5 to 14 years. ‘Pharyngitis or scarlet fever’ and scarlet fever consultations increased in children. There were further small decreases observed in COVID-19-like consultations during week 45.
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GP out of hours syndromic surveillance system
Daily GP out-of-hours contact data from 4 August 2022 onwards has not been received due to a widely publicised disruption faced by one of the GP out-of-hours clinical software system providers. We have since been informed that this disruption was as a result of a cybersecurity incident caused by ransomware. We are working closely with our data provider to restore the daily syndromic feed.
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Emergency department syndromic surveillance system
During week 45, emergency department (ED) attendances for acute respiratory infections increased nationally, particularly in children aged 1 to 4 and 5 to 14 years. There were further increases in influenza-like-illness attendances across adult age groups. Acute bronchiolitis attendances stabilised in children aged 1 and under, but continued increasing in the 1 to 4 years age group. COVID-19-like attendances continued to decrease during week 45.
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Ambulance syndromic surveillance system
During week 45, difficulty breathing ambulance calls increased nationally. There has been a further decrease in the COVID-19-like syndromic indicator due to changes across all ambulance trusts now using alternative codes. Therefore, from week 46 the ambulance COVID-19-like indicator will not be presented in this report as it is no longer in use.
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