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Health officials have warned that the main flu strain circulating this winter - a 'drifted' H3N2 variant - is spreading rapidly. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the strain is fuelling an unusually early and intense season due to 'less natural immunity in the community'.

H3N2 viruses typically cause more severe illness in older adults than other seasonal strains such as H1N1, which the UKHSA said leads to more hospitalisations and deaths, fuelling pressure on the NHS .

This year's season has so far been particularly severe because it began earlier than usual due to a sudden change to the virus. Ed Hutchinson, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Virology at the University of Glasgow, said the H3N2 strain acquired seven new mutations during the southern hemisphe

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