Parents urged to vaccinate their kids as death roll from out of season flu epidemic rises

A killer flu season has triggered warnings for parents to urgently vaccinate their children as the death toll from a rampant out of season influenza epidemic mounts.

A killer flu season has triggered warnings for parents to urgently vaccinate their children as the death toll from a rampant out of season influenza epidemic mounts.

The World Health Organisation influenza centre in Australia has warned the number of flu cases in Australia is the highest in 20 years.

Latest figures show there have been more than 51,000 flu cases reported so far this year while at least 85 people have died from the disease and a further 202 rushed to hospital.

Experts warn the escalating death toll has occurred months before the official flu season is due to start next week.

Griffith University flu expert Professor Paul Van Buynder warned that children are influenza super spreaders.

He said they can often pass it on to their parents, and grandparents. He urged parents to vaccinate their children to help them halt the virus.

Flu vaccinations are free for kids under five, and $15 for older children. Picture: Getty Images

At least three children in Victoria have died from the flu this week, highlighting that it is not just the frail elderly who are at risk.

“We are keen to get children vaccinated because we know ten times more children die from influenza than die from all the other vaccine preventable disease put together,” Prof van Buynder said.

He said parents worried about vaccinating their children — as a result of a scare in 2010 when a flu vaccine for children caused febrile seizures — should be reassured that vaccine was no longer used.

“That vaccine doesn’t exist anywhere in the world,” he said.

He said the new vaccines were very good and safe while many children were vaccinated last year without incident.

For only the second time, all states are providing free flu vaccines for children aged six months to five years-old through GP clinics.

It costs parents just $15 to vaccinate children aged over 5, he said.

Pregnant women, people aged over 65, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and those with a chronic condition are also eligible for a free flu shot.

More than six million doses are now available.

Chemists around the country are providing flu shots for around $15 to $20 for those who aren’t eligible for a free flu shot.

Prof van Buynder said parents worried about vaccinating their children — as a result of a scare in 2010 when a flu vaccine for children caused febrile seizures — should be reassured that vaccine was no longer used. Picture: Getty Images

Now is the optimum time to get your vaccination because it takes up to two weeks for the body to develop immunity to the flu after the shot, said Professor Van Buynder.

A spokesman for Pharmacy Guild of Australia said: “Community pharmacies are experiencing heavy demand for flu shots because of the severity, and early onset, of the flu season this year.”

“Demand is expected to remain high and some pharmacies could potentially face low stocks of supplies.

“In any such event vulnerable patients would have access to supply as there is no shortage of

influenza vaccines for the National Immunisation Program.”

The head of the WHO influenza centre in Melbourne Professor, Kanta Subbarao, said Australia’s quadrivalent flu vaccine protects people from four different stains of the flu.

It should be noted that there is a possibility that the flu strain could mutate however, the laboratory’s analysis shows the main flu type circulating in Australia at present is influenza A.

More than nine in 10 flu cases around the country are influenza A.

In NSW, influenza flu surveillance shows the A(H3N2) was the dominant influenza in circulation in May.

In Queensland, the dominant strain circulating so far this year was A(H1N1) but in recent weeks it has switched to A(H3N2)

Victoria said there are roughly equal numbers of types A/H1N1 and A/H3N2 circulating.

Two main types of flu circulating now. Picture: Supplied

Professor Subbarao said, at this stage, the flu vaccine being rolled out appears to correlate with the strains circulating in the community.

This was not the case in 2017 when one type of flu mutated and the vaccine did not fully protect against it.

Children are more likely to get sicker from influenza B and the H1N1 strand of the influenza A strand, she said.

The government is also paying for a stronger version of the flu vaccine to boost the immunity of elderly people.

The immune systems of elderly people deteriorate as they age and the standard flu vaccine does not work as well for them.

The vaccine is only 60 per cent effective in healthy young people and some people who have been vaccinated will still get the virus.

But Prof Van Buynder said if people had the vaccine, and still get the flu, they will be a milder case of illness and be less likely to end up in hospital.

Originally published as Parents urged to vaccinate their kids as death roll from out of season flu epidemic rises