HEALTH specialists are advising the public to get a flu jab while you still can.

New figures show there has been a significant rise in the number of influenza cases in Cheshire and Merseyside compared with last month.

Although the regional figures are way below the normal seasonal activity, nationally the rate of influenza-like illness has seen doctors being advised to prescribe antiviral drugs to limit the impact of some symptoms and reduce the potential for serious complications.

Head of the Respiratory Diseases Department at the Health Protection Agency, Professor John Watson, said: “Our surveillance shows that since mid-December this year, seasonal flu activity in the country as a whole has started to increase to normal seasonal levels which the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines refer to as the levels seen most winters.

“For most people, flu is miserable, lasting a week or so, but not life threatening. For those in at-risk groups, however, such as the elderly and patients with heart problems, diabetes or lung, liver or renal diseases, or those who have weak immune systems, it can be far more dangerous and can lead to more serious illnesses.”

The Cheshire and Merseyside figures have increased from 13.1 cases per 100,000 people in the last week of December, to 20.3 cases in the first week of the new year.

Dr John Reid, Director of the HPA North West’s Cheshire and Merseyside Health Protection Unit, said: “Flu rates are still comparatively low in the North West, but with evidence of increasing levels elsewhere in the country, there is no room for complacency. Anyone entitled to a free flu jab on the NHS should have one now, if they haven’t had one already.”