Australia’s complacency around influenza has led to soaring cases of the disease and an increase in deaths, experts have warned.
There have been 116,473 flu notifications reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System between January 1 to June 25 this year, as well as 107 influenza-associated deaths and 1,236 hospitalisations.
Despite many people associating flu deaths with older people, three young Australians have died from the disease in recent months, shocking the nation.
An 11-year-old Queensland girl and a teenager from the NSW Central Coast both died from influenza this week alone, sparking fears about the impact of the flu.
These statistics are not surprising to health experts, as vaccination rates trail behind previous years.
The complacency stems from a misunderstanding about how serious the disease is, according to Mater Health infectious diseases director Associate Professor Paul Griffin.
“We had an unprecedented low number of flu cases during Covid, I think we had less than 1000 in one year which is unheard of and means we’ve had fewer people with recent exposure,” he said.
“But the main driver is that people have lost sight of the significance of the flu, and that leads to low vaccination rates.”
Australians aged between 5 and 15 are the least likely to be vaccinated at 13.7 per cent, followed by those aged between 15 and 50 at 20.5 per cent.
Just 23.6 per cent of children under five have been vaccinated against the flu, a worrying statistic driven by complacency and people being “a little bit over” immunisation, according to paediatrician and infectious disease expert Professor Robert Booy.
“[The vaccine uptake] is incredibly inadequate to provide protection and we really should have done better by now considering we’ve had free flu vaccination for children under five for quite some years,” he said.
As a result, young people are much more likely to contract the flu, with 57 per cent of those who caught the illness in NSW being under the age of 20 and 36 per cent being under the age of 10.
Children under five are at particular risk of severe illness and the consequences of the disease can be deadly, with a previously healthy three-year-old Perth boy dying suddenly from the flu in June.
Muhammed Saadiq Segaff contracted influenza A before deteriorating rapidly and going into cardiac arrest. Doctors fought to save him through open-heart surgery, however, he could not be revived.
Professor Griffin argued that attitudes toward children and Covid-19 are driving the surge of flu cases among young people.
“We’ve been reassuring people that children are at a lower risk with Covid, but it’s very different with influenza and I think a lot of people have lost sight of that, that children do get the flu, they spread the flu and they can get sick from it,” he said.
“Traditionally, and as we see at the moment, our highest rate of notifications as well as hospitalisations actually occurs in children.”
Though influenza A led the charge at the start of the flu season, influenza B is now taking over as the dominant strain.
Despite the A strain being considered more severe, both can be “nasty” and cause serious illness.
“Flu B is typically considered the less severe version, it doesn’t cause pandemics and it doesn’t change as much but what we are seeing right now is it does tend to cause more severe disease in children,” Professor Griffin said.
“That’s why our vaccine actually contains two flu A strains and two flu B strains so that we protect people against both.”
Professor Booy says that it’s not too late to be vaccinated and protect yourself and your children from the disease, even if you’ve caught it already this year.
Only 5-10 per cent of children who contract the flu will need to be taken to the hospital according to Professor Griffin, but he had some tips for parents who were worried about their sick children.
“If you’re wondering whether you need to get your child reviewed, it’s probably best to err on the side of caution,” he said.
“The main sort of things we worry about is a respiratory infection, so if children are having trouble breathing or wheezing in a significant way, it’s a good indication to get checked out.
“Severe infection can cause issues with the central nervous systems and make kids irritable or drowsy … there can be skin changes, if the skin appears mottled or pale, definitely get them reviewed.”