With WA enduring one of its worst flu seasons and three young Australians losing their lives since May, the State Government is taking the unprecedented step of texting parents and contacting doctors urging children to get vaccinated.
The aim is to jolt the community out of its post-COVID complacency and vaccination fatigue that has led to a soaring number of flu cases and hospital admissions.
Influenza cases declined dramatically during the years of pandemic-related restrictions but have come roaring back, posing a particular threat to kids as evidenced by the deaths of Queensland 11-year-old Emma Schwab and Perth toddler Muhammed Saadiq Segaff.
There have been 13,643 cases reported to the WA Department of Health so far this year — up almost 30 per cent on last year — and 1503 hospital admissions, which is 70 per cent higher than the previous five-year average.
There are now more flu cases than COVID with 1454 reported in the week to July 9 compared to 1165 COVID reports.
And while throughout Australia during COVID the community was repeatedly reassured children were at lower risk from the virus, doctors say the flu is different.
“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 (the fact) that children do get the flu, they spread the flu and they can get sick from it,” says Associate Professor Paul Griffin, an infectious diseases expert from Brisbane.
“Traditionally, and as we see at the moment, our highest rate of notifications as well as hospitalisations actually occurs in children.”
The Sunday Times revealed earlier this month 445 kids aged under nine had been in hospital with the flu, up from 97 in the same period last year — a 458 per cent increase.
The deaths of three young flu victims within weeks shocked the nation. Emma Schwab died suddenly on July 9 after contracting influenza B, leaving her family “torn apart”.
The news came just a day after it was reported a teenage girl from the NSW Central Coast — remembered by her school as a “thoughtful, well-loved student” — died from influenza B.
Perth toddler Muhammed Saadiq Segaff contracted influenza A in May before deteriorating rapidly and going into cardiac arrest in hospital.
The previously happy and healthy three-year-old was WA’s youngest flu death this year.
Experts are worried about vaccination fatigue after two years of hyper-vigilance during the pandemic.
Despite the increase in cases and free vaccination for under-fives, only 22.5 per cent of WA children under five have been vaccinated against the flu this year, about the same as in 2022. But that is way down on 2019 when 52 per cent got a jab in what was a severe flu season.
Even less likely to be vaccinated are children aged between five and 12, with the number down to 18 per cent.
Three-year-old Muhammed Saadiq Segaff was WA’s youngest flu death this year. Credit: 7NEWS/7NEWS
WA Health senior medical adviser Paul Effler told The Sunday Times that the Health Department would next week roll out a program to contact GPs and parents in an attempt to increase the flu vaccine take-up.
“WA is seeing very high rates of children being hospitalised this winter due to influenza, with more than 35 per cent of people who were admitted to hospital with influenza so far this year aged under nine,” he said.
“Hospitalisation numbers are high among those not fully vaccinated for influenza, particularly for children.
“The Department of Health is contacting WA GPs, and will send text messages to parents, to encourage increased influenza vaccine uptake.”
Unlike COVID-19, the flu is a virus humans feel well acquainted with. There are mild years and any catastrophic variations — such as the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 that killed 50 million people and infected a third of the globe — are only remembered in history books.
Experts have warned that complacency is high because of a misunderstanding about how serious the disease is.
“It is not the same as a common cold,” Dr Effler said.
“Influenza can cause serious illness, and even death, with babies, young children, older adults and people with chronic illnesses particularly at risk.”
The Department of Health notes that this disconnect shows up in vaccination statistics.
Unlike flu vaccinations, WA parents are very diligent with routine childhood immunisations for diseases such as polio, meningococcal and measles with coverage rates of 90 per cent for one-, two- and five-year-olds.
“But with influenza, there seems to be a misconception that the illness is not serious in children,” a Health Department spokeswoman said.
“The reality is that young children have a higher rate of hospitalisation for influenza than adults and that about half the children who are hospitalised have no pre-existing health issues.
“This year is no exception; so far in 2023, the rate of hospitalisation for influenza among children under five years of age in WA is more than double the rate for persons aged 75 years and over.”
The department points to logistical challenges for parents. “Unlike other childhood vaccinations which are scheduled according to a child’s age, influenza vaccinations are linked to seasonality and thus may require making an appointment for an immunisation visit that falls outside the routine childhood immunisation schedule time-points,” the spokeswoman said.
According to Mt Lawley GP Simon Torvaldsen, a return to normality after the pandemic peak has also led to people letting their guard down.
“We are getting back to pre-COVID levels of complacency,” he said.
“For two or three years we were really hyped-up about respiratory illness and vaccinations and now everyone’s back to travelling and the situation has returned to normal so people have got a bit slack with vaccinations.”
Dr Torvaldsen said vaccine fatigue undoubtedly played a role in the slow take-up of flu vaccinations.
“It’s particularly been a factor for COVID-19 vaccines but there is a general vaccine fatigue as well,” he said. “
The problem with flu vaccines is you have to get it every year as they’re fairly specific to the strains so people become complacent with getting it annually.”
Australian Medical Association WA president Michael Page agrees.
“After COVID people don’t want to think about these illnesses and don’t want to think about getting vaccinated,” he said.
“I can understand that as I think it’s not just vaccine fatigue it’s pandemic fatigue — people don’t want to talk about COVID any more and influenza can get lumped into this category.”
More than 29 per cent of those who caught the flu in WA this year were under the age of 15 and more than 13 per cent under the age of five.
Out of the 736 people treated in hospital for influenza between the start of June and July 13, 87 per cent were not vaccinated.
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. Vaccines usually combat both strains.
Dr Page said it was not too late to get a jab. “The fact is most of us are pretty well protected against bad outcomes from COVID,” he said.
“Now, flu is a far bigger threat in an unvaccinated population,. It’s far more likely to cause deaths in children and severe illness in children.”
Health Minister Amber-Jade Sanderson urged West Australians to roll up their sleeves to stop the spread of the flu. “The number of influenza notifications and hospitalisations in WA are higher this year than the previous five-year average, and a concerning number of young children have been hospitalised with flu,” she said.
“Influenza has hit our community hard this year, but by getting vaccinated early you help protect yourself and others around you, while also supporting our hospitals during the busy winter period.”
She said the number of vaccinations for young children in recent weeks was “encouraging given the concerning number of children being hospitalised with influenza this year”.
Dr Page said influenza cases were now putting a strain on an already overrun and short-staffed health system affected by staff absences due to winter illnesses.
“The flow-on effect is the pressure on hospitals. We are seeing over 100 per cent occupancy of beds so the system has no spare capacity at all,” he said.
“Any extra pressures, whether it’s staff shortages or more patients getting sick with winter illnesses just compounds all the other problems that we are seeing at the moment.”
Shadow health minister Libby Mettam said WA deserved public hospitals that met the needs of the flu season. “Flu season happens every year and every year the Labor Government blames it for ambulance ramping and overstretched hospitals,” she said.
“It’s time the Government stopped deflecting and committed to managing our hospital system rather than allowing it to continue to descend further into crisis.
“The people of Western Australia deserve public hospitals that can meet their needs and cater for the flu season every year.”
With most widespread viral infections, from Spanish flu to COVID, the key to their spread is people having little immunity and not taking precautions.
The advice to stop the spread of the flu is the same as COVID — isolating if you are feeling unwell, washing hands and wearing masks. “It’s worth pointing out that all the precautionsthat we asked people to take for COVID work really well, if not better, for the flu,” Dr Torvaldsen said.
“The flu is actually somewhat less infectious than COVID in terms of how easily it’s transmitted and it does respond to these public health measures.”