A patient is given a H1N1 swine flu vaccination at the University College London hospital, on October 21, 2009.
Flu has killed 27 people in Britain since the influenza season began in October and transmission of the virus is picking up across the European Union, health officials said on Thursday.
Latest data from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) showed that 24 people died with the H1N1 flu strain that spread around the world as a pandemic in 2009, and three with from a strain known as flu type B. Eighteen of those who died were adults and nine were children.
“The level of flu activity we are currently seeing is at levels often seen during the winter flu seasons, but due to the fact that H1N1 is one of the predominant strains circulating at the moment, we are seeing more severe illness in people under the age of 65 than we would normally expect,” said John Watson, head of the respiratory diseases department at the HPA.
It is one of the most agonising decisions any parent could have to make.
Conjoined twins Emma and Taylor Bailey, three, will die if they are not separated because too much strain is being put on their shared heart.
But the odds that even one would survive the complex operation are extremely slim.
No twins born with one heart have ever been separated successfully.
Now doctors say that time is running out for their parents to make their choice.
Emma and Taylor, who are fused from the breastbone to the belly button, have already defied experts once.
They were expected to live for only 15 minutes because it was thought that their heart would become overworked as soon as they took their first breath.
But doctors say they must be separated in the next year or two to have any chance of survival.
The girls also share a liver. For the surgery to succeed, it is likely that they will both need heart transplants and one will need a new liver.
Their American mother Mandy Bailey, 32, who lives in Arizona, said: 'There's a tiny window of time for a separation. We have to get it completely right, if we wait too long then the operation cannot go ahead.
'In the next year, life for all of us will be drastically different.
'We know we have to make difficult choices. We understand the risks. But we also understand the outcome if we don't do anything.'
She said that when the girls were born, all her husband Tor, a 34-yearold builder, had hoped for was to hear them cry just once.
'We were told they would live for minutes and then they would suffocate,' she added. 'The girls were handed to him straight away and they simultaneously inhaled and quietly cried. It was a magical sound.'
The twins' future was still uncertain when they were well enough to be discharged from hospital. They were given oxygen and medication to strengthen their lungs and have astonished doctors with their progress.
They can feed themselves and are learning to get about using a special walker.
Mrs Bailey said: 'The girls are becoming different people and developing adorable little traits. Taylor is the bossy one.
'Emma is a bit crazy, she's always pulling funny faces.' The Baileys have four other children aged 11, nine, seven and two. Emma and Taylor have already had several smaller heart operations.
One in June last year involved placing a band around Emma's aorta to reduce her blood pressure.
Seattle Children's Hospital, which is overseeing the twins' care, does not want to discuss the treatment.
Mrs Bailey said: 'We realise what a great miracle it is for our daughters to be alive and happy. They are a blessing for our family.'
Independent: The girls move around using a specially-adapted walker and are able to feed themselves
Dilemma: Emma and Taylor Bailey share a single heart, but must be separated if they are to survive
Miracle: When the girls were born, doctors said they would live for only a few minutes
Family time: The three-year-old twins with their mother Mandy, who is also mother two four other children
American expert Dr George Buchanan observes Twinkle bleeding from her eyes at the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai.Unique case: Twinkle Dwivedi has an undiagnosed disorder which means she loses blood through her skin without being cut or scratched
A schoolgirl who spontaneously bleeds from her pores has left doctors baffled.
Indian Twinkle Dwivedi, 14, has an undiagnosed disorder which means she loses blood through her skin without being cut or scratched.
The teenager, from Lucknar, Uttar Pradesh, has even undergone blood transfusions after bleeding from her eyes, nose, hairline, neck and soles of her feet about 50 times each day.
She said: 'I bleed from my eyes, my hands, my head, from everywhere. From my ears, nose and eyes as well.
'It doesn't hurt when the bleeding starts. But it makes me tired and sometimes I have headaches.'
Dr George Buchanan, a leading American paediatric blood specialist who has worked in Britain, travelled to India to look into Twinkle's case.
He visited her family at the Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai where he observed her bleeding.
He said: 'I've never seen a case of someone who bleeds spontaneously from their scalp or their palms, or read about it in medical history.
'I was interested to see if I could help Twinkle.'
The doctor was called to the family's hotel room to witness bleeding which began from her hair parting. He was shocked to find no signs of cuts, bruising or redness.
Dr Buchanan said: 'It doesn't seem physically possible for blood to seep through intact skin.
'But I saw no signs of cuts or bruising anywhere on her body.'
Twinkle's mother Nandani Diwedi, 43, who runs a beauty salon as well as caring for her four daughters, said: 'We have tried praying and seeking medical help to cure Twinkle. Sometimes you need to do both.
'It hurts me to see her like this. I share her pain.'
Dr Buchanan and his team carried out a series of tests including cutting Twinkle's skin to time how quickly the bleeding stops.
Tests show she may have a mild form of a clotting disorder, which means her platelets do not stick together properly. But this is not enough to explain the spontaneous bleeding.
Dr Buchanan is also investigating whether Twinkle or her mum cause the bleeding themselves.
Twinkle, a Hindu, said: 'I am not causing this. Why would I want to make myself bleed?
'I don't want to be like this. I want to go to school and have a normal life.'
She has missed at least two years of education after two schools banned her from classes because of the bleeding.
Her father Aditya Kumar Diewdi, 48, a railway worker, said: 'This is very frightening for my family. We just want to help Twinkle get better.'
Specialists are now planning 24hour monitoring of Twinkle so close-up surveillance cameras can record exactly how the bleeding begins.
Dr Buchanan said: 'There is a healthy relationship between Twinkle and her mother.
'My heart tells me this may be is a condition we have never seen before.'
The mysterious case of Twinkle's bleeding is fully examined in a new BodyShock documentary, The Girl Who Cries Blood, due to air on Channel 4 at 10pm tomorrow.
It also shows Twinkle's family visiting a local mystic, being examined by a Christian bishop for stigmata, and bathing in the River Ganges.
Last year an American boy, Calvino Inman, 16, from Rockwood, Tennessee, also began bleeding from his eyes, and his case is now under investigation by doctors in the US.
