Eighth victim dies from Wangaratta nursing home flu

AN EIGHTH person has died of an influenza outbreak at a Wangaratta nursing home.

St Johns Village in Wangaratta. Picture: Simon Dallinger

THE deadly influenza outbreak at a Wangaratta nursing home has claimed another life.

The Department of Health and Human Services today confirmed an eighth victim died after being exposed to the flu outbreak at St John’s Retirement Village in Wangaratta.

The department was notified yesterday.

Victoria’s Acting Chief Health Officer Dr Brett Sutton said flu outbreaks at aged care homes were “at very high levels”.

John Walker died at the St Johns Village in Wangaratta on the 30 August.

The tragic death comes as the Herald Sun today revealed 19 Victorian nursing homes failed to meet some of the most basic standards of care in the past year — including one eastern suburbs facility which was forced to close.

The damning report has highlighted the emerging crisis in the aged care sector, showing almost 600 facilities across the country did not meet industry regulations in the past five years.

In Victoria, there have been 222 respiratory outbreaks in nursing homes this year compared with 117 for the same period last year.

The Wangaratta flu deaths are under investigation and have sparked the federal government to introduce mandatory flu vaccinations for aged care workers.

Thelma O’Keefe, the daughter of 96-year-old victim Molly Curtis, said her family was left in the dark about their mother’s declining health.

“One week she was OK and the next we were saying goodbye,” she said,

John Walker, 88, a former police officer, also died of the deadly strain.

His widow, Lorainne Walker, said he came down with pneumonia and died about a week later.

“He didn’t get out of bed after that,” she said.

@AneekaSimonis