Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 10 June 2026
235. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Health if she will provide the number of influenza-related deaths, hospitalisations and intensive care admissions notified in the 2025/2026 season; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44374/26]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe HSE-Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HSE-HPSC) is Ireland's specialist service for the surveillance of communicable diseases, including influenza. The influenza season in the northern hemisphere runs from October (Week 40) of one calendar year to May (Week 20) of the next calendar year. Influenza is most likely to circulate at detectable levels during this time period however, the HSE-HPSC monitor influenza all year round.
During the influenza season, the HSE-HPSC publishes data each week on all notified cases of influenza, as well as COVID-19 and RSV, through:
• The Respiratory Virus Notification Data Hub https://respiratorydisease-hpscireland.hub.arcgis.com/.
• Integrated Respiratory Virus Bulletins www.hpsc.ie/a-z/respiratory/acuterespiratoryinfection/surveillance/integratedreports/.
The data contained in this response has been sourced from the latest HSE-HPSC Integrated Respiratory Virus Bulletin, published on 28 May 2026 which contains data up to Week 20 2026 (week commencing 17 May 2026).
Data is sourced from the Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) system which is the source of statutory notification data on laboratory-confirmed influenza. Data are provisional and subject to ongoing review, validation and update.
• Data on hospitalised cases are inpatients with laboratory-confirmed influenza, including inpatients with incidental infections, where the infection is not the reason for their admission.
• For ICU admissions, the data refer to those admitted to intensive care where influenza was the primary or contributory cause of admission to ICU.
• Influenza deaths are defined as a death in a person with laboratory-confirmed influenza ([see case definition]) and this includes cases detected postmortem. Influenza may not be the underlying cause of death.
For incidence rates, the HSE-HPSC use Census 2022 as the population denominator.
During the 2025/2026 season (Week 40 2025 – Week 20 2026) there were 24,948 cases of laboratory-confirmed influenza notified in Ireland which was an incidence rate of 484.5 per 100,000 population. There were 5,935 hospitalised cases of influenza over the same period, an incidence rate of 115.3 per 100,000 population. Table 1 provides a breakdown of the number and incidence rates of both total influenza cases and hospitalised cases by age, sex and HSE Health Region.
Table 1: Number and incidence of notified laboratory-confirmed cases and hospitalised cases of influenza by age, sex and HSE Health Region, from week 40 2025, to week 20 2026. Data source: CIDR; HSE-HPSC, Integrated Respiratory Virus Bulletin, Ireland, Week 20 2026.
|
|
Number (All Cases) |
Incidence per 100,000 population (All Cases) |
Number (Hospitalised) |
Incidence per 100,000 population (Hospitalised) |
|
Cases |
24,948 |
484.5 |
5,935 |
115.3 |
|
Age groups (years) |
|
|
|
|
|
<1 |
860 |
1,488.0 |
247 |
427.4 |
|
1-4 |
3,060 |
1,287.8 |
768 |
323.2 |
|
5-14 |
3,020 |
421.3 |
742 |
103.5 |
|
15-44 |
5,899 |
285.4 |
726 |
35.1 |
|
45-64 |
3,131 |
242.1 |
644 |
49.8 |
|
65-79 |
4,689 |
787.7 |
1,411 |
237.0 |
|
>80 |
4,287 |
2,368.2 |
1,396 |
771.2 |
|
Median age |
42 |
|
62 |
|
|
Sex |
|
|
|
|
|
Male |
11,325 |
445.1 |
2,772 |
108.9 |
|
Female |
13,609 |
522.5 |
3,161 |
121.4 |
|
HSE Health Regions |
|
|
|
|
|
Dublin and North East |
5,721 |
481.9 |
683 |
57.5 |
|
Dublin and Midlands |
4,533 |
420.6 |
953 |
88.4 |
|
Dublin and South East |
5,637 |
580.5 |
1,363 |
140.4 |
|
South West |
3,416 |
461.2 |
768 |
103.7 |
|
Mid West |
1,776 |
430.0 |
835 |
202.2 |
|
West and North West |
3,863 |
508.5 |
1,332 |
175.3 |
During the 2025/2026 season (Week 40 2025–Week 20 2026) there were 183 admissions to ICU due to influenza (Table 2). This was 3.1% of all hospitalised influenza cases.
Table 2: Number and incidence of ICU admissions due to influenza in Ireland from week 40 2025 to week 20 2026. Data source: CIDR; HSE-HPSC, Integrated Respiratory Virus Bulletin, Ireland, Week 20 2026
|
Number of ICU admissions |
ICU admissions per 1,000 hospitalisations |
% of hospitalised cases admitted to ICU |
|
183 |
30.8 |
3.1 |
During the 2025/2026 season (Week 40 2025 – Week 20 2026) there were 301 influenza deaths. As noted above, this is defined as a death in a person with laboratory-confirmed influenza. 271 of these deaths occurred in persons aged 65 years of age or older, with 30 among persons aged under 65 years of age.
Table 3: Number and incidence of influenza deaths in Ireland, for the season to date (from week 40 2025 to week 20 2026). Data source: CIDR; HSE-HPSC, Integrated Respiratory Virus Bulletin, Ireland, Week 20 2026.
|
Age (years) |
Influenza: Number of deaths |
Influenza: Incidence per 100,000 population |
|
<65 |
30 |
0.7 |
|
65 |
271 |
34.9 |
|
Total |
301 |
5.8 |
