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Background: Seasonal influenza is an annual occurrence that leads to large community outbreaks and increased hospitalization. A number of studies have suggested that influenza A (FLUAV) is associated with increased rates of hospitalization and mortality compared with influenza B (FLUBV). This study compared demographic and clinical variables in patients diagnosed with FLUAV or FLUBV during the 2017–2018 UK Influenza season. Methods: Patient demographic and clinical information were obtained by accessing medical records of patients testing FLUAV or FLUBV positive using the Cepheid GXP. We used the χ2 test to compare variables in patients with laboratory‐confirmed FLUAV and FLUBV. Results: One hundred and twenty‐seven adult patients had confirmed Influenza, 71 (55.9%) had FLUAV, and 56 (44.1%) FLUBV. There was no significant difference between severity at presentation, admission to HDU/ITU or median length of stay. The overall mortality was 6 (4.5%) and 9 (7.1%) at 7 and 30 days, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in 7‐day mortality between patients with FLUAV and FLUBV, 1 (1.4%) versus 5 (8.9%), respectively, p =.047) although this became nonsignificant at 30 days. Conclusions: With the exception of mortality, we did not observe significant differences between patients with FLUAV and FLUBV. Seven‐day mortality in patients with FLUBV was significantly higher with FLUAV, although this was was not apparent at 30 days. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Recently emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants have been associated with an increased rate of transmission within the community. We sought to determine whether this also resulted in increased transmission within hospitals., Methods: We collected viral sequences and epidemiological data of patients with community and healthcare associated SARS-CoV-2 infections, sampled from 16th November 2020 to 10th January 2021, from nine hospitals participating in the COG-UK HOCI study. Outbreaks were identified using ward information, lineage and pairwise genetic differences between viral sequences., Results: Mixed effects logistic regression analysis of 4184 sequences showed healthcare-acquired infections were no more likely to be identified as the Alpha variant than community acquired infections. Nosocomial outbreaks were investigated based on overlapping ward stay and SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence similarity. There was no significant difference in the number of patients involved in outbreaks caused by the Alpha variant compared to outbreaks caused by other lineages., Conclusions: We find no evidence to support it causing more nosocomial transmission than previous lineages. This suggests that the stringent infection prevention measures already in place in UK hospitals contained the spread of the Alpha variant as effectively as other less transmissible lineages, providing reassurance of their efficacy against emerging variants of concern., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)