South Australia’s horror influenza year has easily eclipsed past records

SOUTH Australia’s horror influenza year has easily eclipsed past records and people are continuing to fall sick.

• Flu season ‘disaster’: call for stronger vaccines to be made available

SOUTH Australia’s horror influenza year has easily eclipsed past records and people are continuing to fall sick.

Mutating viruses are being blamed for reducing the effectiveness of this year’s vaccines.

SA Health data shows as of December 16 a total of 27,113 people had been confirmed with the flu in SA, nearly double the 15,659 total for all of 2015, which was previously the worst on modern records.

Deep into summer dozens of people are still succumbing to the flu — in the week ending December 16, 54 cases were reported. This comprised 32 cases of influenza A and 22 of influenza B, among the 23 male and 31 female victims.

The flu season usually lasts from about May to September.

“Influenza notifications are higher than currently reported as not all influenza notifications have been entered into the surveillance system,” SA Health notes.

The good news is there has been a steady decline from 10 weeks ago when there were 358 cases reported in a single week.

Federal figures show that as of October the infectious disease had killed more than 30 people in South Australia.

Officials note the number of flu-associated deaths reported does not represent the true mortality rate as the data relies on tracking cases to determine their outcome, but this type of follow up is not mandatory.  Officials also observe that deaths attributed to other causes such as heart failure may be exacerbated by the flu.

SA Health authorities have consistently urged people to get vaccinated.

However, much of the political discussion about the flu this year centred on whether it was wise to move into the new Royal Adelaide Hospital during such a heavy flu season.

The federal Health Department says mutations in the A strain were partly to blame for the heavy season.

“The most common influenza virus this season was influenza A(H3N2), particularly with the elderly being more susceptible to this strain of virus,” it says.

“The estimated effectiveness of the 2017 seasonal influenza vaccine was low for influenza A ... the estimated effectiveness for other viruses circulating to a lesser extent was moderate.

“The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, the vaccine produces a weaker immune response generally in the elderly.

“Secondly, this year the influenza A virus seemed to undergo some change during the year and general vaccine protection was less across the whole community for this strain.”

State Health Minister Peter Malinauskas is pressuring the Federal Government to fund free flu shots for children aged six months to five years.