China Faces Peak H3N2 Flu Season

Medical staff at the Funan County Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, provide autumn and winter flu vaccinations to young children on October 25, 2025. Photo: VCG

Experts and disease prevention and control departments in regions such as Guangdong and Liaoning provinces have recently issued alerts about a high-incidence period for influenza, primarily characterized by the H3N2 strain. 

In response to the current high-incidence period of influenza, Liu Jun, director of the immunization institute of the Guangdong Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that Guangdong Province has now entered the high-incidence period of influenza in winter and spring, China News Service reported Wednesday. 

The activity level of influenza in the province has been steadily rising, with the A (H3N2) subtype dominating, the report said.

Experts predict that as temperatures fall, flu activity in Guangdong may continue to fluctuate. Collective units such as schools, kindergartens, elderly care and welfare institutions, medical institutions, and regulatory facilities are key places for the prevention and control of influenza outbreaks. Children, the elderly, patients with chronic diseases and pregnant women are high-risk groups for severe influenza, the China News Service report said. 

Zhong Wei, deputy director of the Monitoring, Early Warning, and Emergency Response Division at the Liaoning Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Liaoning Daily on Wednesday that the latest monitoring data indicates although influenza activity in Liaoning is showing a slight upward trend, the overall positivity rate remains relatively low. 

The proportion of influenza-like illness cases reported by sentinel hospitals across the province, relative to the total number of outpatient and emergency visits, is lower than during the same period last year, according to Zhong. 

Yongzhou, a city in Central China's Hunan Province, also held an event on Wednesday to help students raise awareness of protecting themselves from influenza at a primary school, local media reported.

Currently, no significant signals indicating an early onset of the flu peak have been detected in Liaoning, and future trends will be dynamically assessed as new data emerges. Historically, the peak flu season in Liaoning typically occurs from November to March of the following year, Zhong said. 

The latest issue of China CDC Weekly, citing monitoring data, showed that the week between October 13 and 19, influenza activity in northern provinces was at a low level, while that in southern provinces rose. A total of 49 cases of influenza have been reported across the country.

There are three main types of influenza viruses in circulation: Influenza A (H3N2), Influenza A (H1N1), and Influenza B (Victoria). Influenza A overwhelmingly dominates detections, accounting for over 90 percent of cases in both northern and southern regions among these Influenza A cases, the China CDC Weekly said. 

In Hong Kong, health authorities recently reported two serious flu cases involving young children with underlying health conditions, the Standard reported. It quoted Edwin Tsui Lok-kin, Controller of the Centre for Health Protection, as saying that 677 school-related outbreak reports have been logged since September in Hong Kong.

Current trends suggest flu activity will remain elevated over the coming weeks, Edwin said.

In mid-October, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection said a 13-year-old girl died due to a severe influenza B infection - the first fatal paediatric case this year, Hong Kong media rthk reported. 

Getting the flu vaccine is the most effective way to prevent the flu and reduce severe cases, Liu said. 

Global Times

Source: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202510/1346944.shtml