Qld’s horror flu season: Girl, 4, one of 72 to perish

A four-year-old girl is one of 72 Queenslanders who have lost their lives to the flu so far this year, with data showing mums and dads among the tragic toll.

Health Shannon Fentiman says she is extremely concerned about the lack of interest in the flu vaccine from the Queensland public.

• Editor’s view: Get your free shot

A four-year-old girl is one of 72 Queenslanders who have lost their lives to the flu so far this year, with data showing mums and dads among the tragic toll – and hospitalisations are already 1000 above the numbers in the horror flu year of 2019.

The newly released grim statistics have fuelled fears that vaccination hesitancy after Covid-19 is setting the state up for future years of totally overwhelmed healthcare services.

The government has announced critical pressure on hospitals this season but experts warn flu cases will continue to soar if Queenslanders avoid the free vaccine.

Only 10 per cent of the 4162 people hospitalised with influenza this year have been immunised.

As of this week 13 deaths were among Queenslanders aged 40 to 64 and 58 among those over 65. The four-year-old was the only child death.

A total of 670 children have been hospitalised and a massive 1584 adults from 18 to 65 is coming close to the 1908 elderly people admitted to hospital.

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman told The Courier-Mail she was extremely concerned about the lack of interest in the flu vaccine from the Queensland public.

Only 1,686,800 Queenslanders over the age of six months old had received the influenza vaccine – about 30 per cent of those eligible for the jab.

“We know that since Covid, vaccination complacency has become a worldwide challenge but Queenslanders shouldn’t be complacent. This is one of the worst flu seasons we’ve had in years,” Ms Fentiman said.

“Already we’ve eclipsed hospitalisations for 2019 by more than 1000 admissions and 2019 was a particularly bad season.

“We are seeing immense pressure on our hospital emergency departments and flu and other respiratory illnesses are playing a major part in this,” she said.

Infectious disease expert Professor Paul Griffin said that an urgent education program was needed on vaccinations to dispel misinformation to avoid health care workers being totally overwhelmed in future years.

“We see from the numbers that the flu does not single out those with risk factors or the elderly, there are large numbers of otherwise healthy people in hospital and they are not old. We have lost sight of the fact that the flu is a dangerous virus and it can take lives,” Prof Griffin said.

“We see the impact of the huge number of cases on health services and we need to turn things around or this will worsen in the future.

“The vaccine this year is a good match for the strain which is a mixture of H1N1 and H3N2.

“It saves lives and keeps serious illness at bay.”

As the season peak has not yet hit the expert says it is not too late to be vaccinated.