Deaths from flu in Scotland more than doubled last year amid concerns that a decline in uptake of the vaccine could lead to more cases of the virus.
Influenza claimed the lives of 336 people in 2023 compared to 129 in 2022 and just two in 2021, according to figures from National Records of Scotland (NRS).
Most of the fatalities were in the first four weeks of the year, with the peak being in the second week of January when 123 people died.
Deaths throughout the year were at the highest level since 2018, when the mortality rate and numbers of people seeking medical help or needing hospital treatment were around three times that of previous years.
Flu deaths in Scotland doubled last year amid growing fears that vaccination rates are falling
Public Health Scotland said trends in respiratory infections are monitored by season, and an increase in deaths in 2022/23 coincided with the end of Covid-19 restrictions.
There was also a drop in vaccine uptake in 2023/24 compared to 2022/23.
Around 2.5 million eligible people were vaccinated in 2022/23, when NHS Scotland said there was a ‘large rise in flu activity for the first time in four seasons’.
In 2023/24, 63.7 per cent of the eligible population took up the invitation to have their flu jag.
During the entire calendar year of 2023, 157 males and 179 females died of flu.
The toll compares with 361 flu deaths in 2018.
A boy aged between one and four was the youngest to die of flu last year.
There were also two deaths of males in the 15 to 24 age group. One woman aged 25 to 34 also died.
But the highest risk age group was 75 to 84 with 95 deaths. There were also 50 deaths in the 85 to 89 bracket and 86 deaths of people aged 90 or older.
In 2022, there were 129 deaths from influenza – 52 of them male and 77 female.
PHS said that vaccine uptake in 2023/24 was 79.8 per cent for over-65s and 86.3 per cent for older care home residents.
It said: ‘Vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself against the most likely circulating strains of flu, hospitalisation and serious illness.’
Public Health Scotland said the best way to protect against flu is to get vaccinated
Last month, experts said the recent rise in cases of coronavirus in Scotland may have ‘peaked’.
Dr Kimberly Marsh , a consultant healthcare scientist at Public Health Scotland (PHS), said Covid-19 did not appear to follow seasonal patterns such as illnesses like flu.
Data from PHS, for the week ending July 14, had cases at 1,130 – down from 1,245 the previous week.
It came as a study suggested that conspiracy theories about vaccinations may have contributed to a drop in the number of children being immunised in Scotland.
Anti-vax sentiments are commonly spread on social media with ‘misinformation’ around the subject thought to be a factor in parents being hesitant about taking their children for their jabs.
Public Health Scotland (PHS) found that parents or carers who had chosen not to have their children vaccinated often mentioned conspiracy theories about the injections.
The report, called Understanding and Addressing Declines in Childhood Immunisations, found that inaccurate information was often spread on social media.
Examples of the damaging conspiracy theories include the belief that the MMR vaccine causes autism, that children’s health is endangered by aluminium in vaccines and over Bill Gates’s involvement in the flu jab.
