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

THIS year’s flu season has been a nightmare. Now health chiefs are pushing for stronger flu shots used overseas to be made available — for free — in 2018.

The Royal Australian College of General practitioners has called for the flu vaccine to made available free for everybody.

STRONGER and better flu vaccines will be available for next year’s flu season with vaccine manufacturers now working to get them approved for use in Australia.

The moves come as the president of the Royal Australian College of General practitioners Dr Bastian Seidel called for the vaccine to made available free for everybody.

News Corp revealed on Monday Australia had 217,000 confirmed flu cases this year, double the previous record, and reported that experts had called for stronger vaccines available elsewhere in the world to be used here.

There are growing calls for the flu shot to made free to the public.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has asked Chief Medical Officer Dr Brendan Murphy to investigate getting better vaccines for next year.

“At the request of the Health Minister Greg Hunt, I am working on ways to strengthen the National Immunisation Program, including holding talks with manufacturers on new and strengthened vaccines,” Dr Murphy said.

Pharmaceutical companies that supply the Australian market said on Monday they were working to bring stronger vaccines available elsewhere in the world here.

Adjuvant flu vaccines which boost the patient’s immune response have been used in Europe since 1997 and in the US since 2015.

The four times strength fluzone vaccine has been approved in the US since 2009.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has asked Chief Medical Officer Dr Brendan Murphy to investigate getting better vaccines for next year.

Chairman of the Immunisation Coalition Professor Paul van Buynder told News Corp Australia’s weak vaccine was partly to blame for the worst flu epidemic on record and he called for stronger vaccines to be approved for use.

“This was a disaster year and if we don’t get policy change as a result heaven help me,” he told News Corp.

On Monday in a statement he said “Media reports referring to ‘cheap vaccines’ don’t accurately describe the situation of vaccine purchasing in Australia.”

“The vaccine purchased by the Australian Government and used this year was the best available in Australia at the time, and remains so today” he said.

“While the vaccine was relatively ineffective in the elderly this year, we had no alternative vaccine available.

This year’s record-breaking flu season has been described as “a disaster”.

“We look forward to Government and industry working on bringing better products into Australia. Vaccination is still the single, most effective way to prevent influenza.”

Vaccine manufacturer Seqirus makes an adjuvant vaccine that boosts the immune response and it has been found to work better in the elderly. It is available overseas but not Australia.

“Following this year’s very severe influenza season the Australian government has been investigating providing new, enhanced, vaccines for elderly persons,” the company said yesterday.

“Seqirus is working to expedite regulation of our enhanced vaccine” said Dr Lorna Meldrum, Vice-President Commercial Operations.

Sanofi makes a flu vaccine that is four times the strength of the vaccine used in Australia’s national flu vaccination program.

This stronger vaccine has been found to work better in the elderly and young children who have weaker immune systems.

This vaccine has been available overseas but not in Australia because the company had not registered it here.

Two state governments – Queensland and Victoria – are already looking at providing the flu vaccine free to children. But the program needs to be national, say health chiefs.

The company is now trying to get the vaccine registered in Australia in time for it to be used for next year’s flu seasons.

“Sanofi is in the process of registration of an enhanced influenza vaccine that we expect will be a step forward to address this issue and we are working with the Department of Health to bring flu high dose to the population as soon as possible,” the company said.

National Seniors on Monday called for more effective flu vaccines for the elderly, after what it called a “dreadful winter” that claimed the lives of numerous aged care residents.

RACGP president Dr Bastian Seidel says the only way to prevent another record breaking flu season like this year is to get more of the population vaccinated and the only way to do that is to make it free.

“The medical recommendation is for everyone aged over six months to have it on an annual basis,” he says.

Children are super spreaders of the virus and vaccinating then as part of the regular childhood vaccination scheme would be a good start says Seidel.

Two state governments – Queensland and Victoria – are already looking at providing the flu vaccine free to children but Dr Seidel says the program needs to be national.

The states should have an interest in funding the vaccine because they end up saving money in their public hospital system if there are fewer hospitalisations as a result of the flu, he said.

Mr Hunt is working on making flu vaccinations compulsory for health aged care workers after a series of major flu outbreaks in aged care homes led to multiple deaths.

Originally published as Flu seaon ‘disaster’: call for stronger vaccines to be made available