Influenza A infection under-reported during 2021 UK pandemic, researchers reveal

Influenza A infections were under-reported during the 2021 UK pandemic, according to research presented earlier this year at MLSFF 2026.

Luke Haddock, from the University of Warwick, won a postgraduate poster prize at the conference for his work with fellow MRes researcher Jenny Redman, supervised by Craig Thompson and Nicole Robb.

By screening over 1000 nose/throat swab samples in a biobank provided by the UKHSA, the team identified a much higher prevalence of influenza A than UKHSA reports suggested.

The research was highlighted at the Minoritised Life Scientists Future Forum (MLSFF26) at Edinburgh International Conference Centre from March 23 to 25. Supported by AMI, MLSFF26 was the only major conference in Europe dedicated to supporting and showcasing the contributions of marginalised and underrepresented communities in the life sciences.

Leading cause of mortality

“Lower respiratory infections are a leading cause of mortality globally. Our first line of defence is the respiratory microbiome - the “good” bacteria in our airways - yet we still have much to learn about how these bacteria respond to viral infections and whether they produce antiviral proteins that could lead to new treatments,” said Mr Haddock.

The team performed qPCR to screen a COVID-19 biobank collected by the UKHSA during the pandemic for various viral infections.

“We discovered that the majority of non-SARS-CoV-2 viral infections were influenza A. Finding 56 cases (5%) was particularly surprising, as the UKHSA reported a circulation rate of less than 1.5% at the time (November 2021). This suggests that general surveillance for respiratory viruses during the pandemic may have been under-reported,” Mr Haddock said.

“The higher-than-expected rate of influenza A (5%) in our samples, compared to the official UKHSA report of <1.5%, was a surprise. It highlights a potential gap in general respiratory virus surveillance during that period, likely due to surveillance efforts being focused on SARS-CoV-2 mass testing.

“Identifying these infections is critical because it creates a valuable resource for studying how the respiratory microbiome changes during viral illness. Understanding these shifts in bacterial diversity and gene expression could lead to novel, nasally delivered antiviral treatments, especially for high-risk groups like smokers who often have unstable microbiomes.”

Next steps

Next steps involve characterising these changes more deeply using 16S sequencing to determine the relative abundance of bacteria and RNA-seq to analyse how bacterial transcriptomics shift in response to infection, he said.

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The lab work for this study was led by Luke Haddock and Jenny Redman. The project was supervised by Craig Thompson (grant holder) and Nicole Robb.