In 2018, influenza made headlines, with the 2017/18 flu season heralded on of the 'worst ever' for the National Health Service with the highest number of influenza-related hospital admissions since 2010. This flu season has been markedly different. But why is there so much variation?

This month, we spoke with Dr John McCauley, Director of the World Health Organization's Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, at the Francis Crick Institute, and Dr Othmar Engelhardt, Principal Scientist in the Division of Virology at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control. In this episode, we discuss how different subtypes and strains of influenza can have different effects in the population, and how microbiologists are working on preparing vaccines for the upcoming flu season.

For more information about influenza, why not read our blog Déjà flu: can science help the NHS cope with the annual burden of respiratory infections? from the Hot Topic lecture at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference 2018: https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/d-j-flu-can-science-help-the-nhs-cope-with-the-annual-burden-of-respiratory-infections.html