Australian hospitals, schools under siege from four killer viruses

With winter underway, Australia is facing a “perfect storm” of simultaneous killer virus outbreaks in the nation’s hospitals and schools.

Experts are calling for Covid-style testing to identify killer respiratory viruses sweeping schools, ambulance services and hospitals at unprecedented levels.

Along with surging Covid infections, there is an escalating outbreak of RSV, the flu and metapneumovirus (which causes cough, fever, nasal congestion, and shortness of breath) — making for a quadruple virus outbreak.

Infectious diseases experts say a testing program is vital to relieve pressure on hospitals and ensure people get access to bespoke flu and Covid treatments.

The Immunisation Coalition is calling on every state to follow NSW and test all Covid PCR swabs for influenza and Covid-19, as well as RSV and whooping cough.

They want GPs to perform a nasal swab on patients with respiratory viruses and test for up to 20 different infections.

The Immunisation Coalition is calling on every state test all Covid PCR swabs for influenza and Covid-19, as well as RSV and whooping cough. Picture: James D. Morgan/Getty Images

“Finding cases and managing them appropriately with therapy can only be done if our testing strategy is right,” said the Coalition’s spokesman Professor Paul Griffin.

He said there are treatments for the flu and for Covid that can quickly bring the viruses under control if delivered in the first few days of an infection but people need to be tested so they can access them.

Immunity to common respiratory viruses has been weakened because strict Covid infection control measures meant people did not catch these infections in 2020 and 2021.

And Australia is currently facing a “perfect storm” of simultaneous virus outbreaks that could mean hospitals have to delay elective procedures if it is not controlled.

“It’s really the coming together of all of them right now that is stretching our hospitals and while by no means are we at a crisis, it is increasingly going to put pressure on our capacity to maintain elective services if we don’t see this, come under control,” University of Sydney infectious diseases expert Associate Professor Philip Britton said.

“Our best tools are influenza vaccine and Covid vaccine at the moment.”

People are being encouraged to get both the flu and Covid vaccines this year.

Monash University’s Professor Allen Cheng said while it is unlikely we would return to lockdown, people could help control infections by voluntarily wearing masks in shopping centres and crowded indoor venues and use hand sanitiser at school and childcare.

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute paediatrician Associate Professor Margie Danchin said only 10 per cent of kids were vaccinated against flu last year.

“That has meant that flu has come back with absolute vengeance” and children over the age of six months should be vaccinated now,” she said.

Recent research in the Netherlands discovered children have far fewer antibodies to a set of common respiratory viruses because they were less exposed to infection during Covid lockdowns.

Influenza virus under a microscope. Picture: Getty Images

Australia is currently in the grip of a four pronged virus assault said researcher and virus tracker Dr John-Sebastian Eden from the University of Sydney Institute for Infectious Diseases.

“What’s remarkable, I guess, is they very rarely all go up simultaneously,” he said.

“Historically RSV was an early winter virus and the flu would then kick off as RSV was going down, and, at the back end you might see, human metapneumovirus,” he said.

“We’ve had a quite a big peak of human metapneumovirus in recent weeks, they normally don’t take off together.”

The infection crisis is seeing ambulance services and hospital emergency departments overwhelmed and at schools, some classes have had to return to remote learning as the multiple viruses affect students and teachers.

This week the Red Cross was forced to make a special appeal for blood donations as Covid and other infections kept regulars from giving.

To ease the pressure on the hospital system all six of Australia’s states are offering free flu jabs.