Low vaccination rates lead to increase in influenza and other viruses spreading across state

Influenza is running wild in Queensland with 1200 cases – 500 more than the deadly 2019 season – and fears the outbreak could be five times worse than official data suggests.

New data shows that respiratory illnesses like the flu and RSV are spreading across Queensland, with one infectious disease expert warning the state’s “miserable” uptake of the influenza vaccine means the potentially lethal infection will “run wild”.

More than 1000 people have tested posted to Influenza with the latest figures from Queensland Health – the week starting Monday May 1 – revealing numbers continue to climb.

The 1219 people who tested positive is 259 more than the previous week but Griffith University infectious diseases expert Professor Nigel McMillan said the scale of the problem could be around five times worse than official data shows.

Prof McMillan said experts were watching closely but it was still too early to tell whether this flu season would be considered bad or good compared to other years.

But there are already 500 more flu cases this year than there was in the same time period of the deadly 2019 season.

The case numbers for respiratory syncytial virus – the largest cause of hospitalisations for respiratory problems in children under four – are remaining steady with 908 people confirmed to have contracted the illness from May 1 to May 7, down just two from the previous week.

“There’s going to be a huge underlying caseload of people who just get sick, and don’t get tested … know from Covid that this there are probably five cases for every one that was reported, when PCRs became non mandatory,” Prof McMillan said.

“So it could be as many as five times more, it’s probably higher. We just don’t know. But certainly I think everyone in the community probably know someone who’s been struck down with a respiratory infection in the last three weeks, four weeks, and there’ll be more of it coming.”

Professor Nigel McMillan, Director, Infection and Immunity Program, Menzies Health Institute Queensland and School of Medical Sciences at Griffith University in Brisbane. Picture: Supplied

Regional areas like Townsville, the Wide Bay region and the Torres Strait are seeing viruses run rampant.

“There really is a concerning increase … we can see RSV and flu beings up upwards of eight times the five year output. So we’ll see, we’ll see how that plays out in regional areas,” Prof McMillan said.

Seventy people with influenza and 96 with RSV were hospitalised last week, down from 106 and 142 respectively in the previous week (April 24-30).

The flu vaccine is available for anyone aged six months and above, although the group most at risk – over 60s – have fairly high rates of vaccinations the rest of the state is failing.

“For everyone below 50 it’s miserable….(flu jab uptake) is less than 20 per cent,” Prof McMillan said.

“It certainly does not vaccinate enough of the population to make any difference in terms of spread.

“So lack of coverage, and the fact that the vaccines really will stop you from having really serious consequences, but not really spreading it around just means that flu is going to run wild.”

A Queensland Health spokesman said apart from vaccination and staying home when you are sick, practising good hand and respiratory hygiene was the best defence against the spread of the flu.

There is no RSV vaccine, yet.

Covid cases continued to outpace any other respiratory infections but Health Minister Yvette D’Ath announced in parliament this week that World Health Organisation officials had declared that Covid-19 was “now an established and ongoing health issue and no longer a public health emergency of international concern”.