‘It’s quite unusual’: The five infections making Queenslanders so sick

Five respiratory viral and bacterial infections are soaring in Queensland at the same time, leading to more hospitalisations and a shortage of the preferred antibiotic to treat pneumonia in children.

A highly infectious mixture of three viruses – influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) – is circulating.

In addition, cases of bacterial infections whooping cough and mycoplasma pneumoniae (commonly referred to as “walking pneumonia”) are soaring, often striking down entire families.

Infectious disease specialist Dr Paul Griffin found himself having to call several pharmacies to find antibiotics for his youngest child, who contracted mycoplasma pneumoniae.

“My family has recently experienced mycoplasma. We had to ring around a number of pharmacies to get antibiotics for my youngest child – they simply didn’t have any,” Griffin said.

“There’s that much volume at the moment that we can’t keep up with demand on the treatment for that.”

Griffin said the number of respiratory viruses and bacterial infections circulating in recent weeks was posing challenges for doctors.

“The number of different things going around at once is unusual. A ‘soup’ is one good way of describing it,” Griffin said.

“One of the things we’ve really noticed since opening up after COVID is a number of simultaneous challenges from a respiratory infection point of view that we never really saw in the past.”

With so many people unwell, the Red Cross was calling for 400 new blood donors across Brisbane last week, as blood donations dropped to critical levels.

Azithromycin in liquid form is the preferred antibiotic to treat mycoplasma pneumoniae in children because it requires just one dose a day. The bacterium, which damages the lining of the lungs, throat and windpipe, is naturally resistant to penicillin because it lacks a cell wall.

Dr Paul Griffin says people have lost sight of how important it is to stay home when they are unwell. Credit: Justin McManus

“We’ve got such a high number of cases that I did a webinar for some GPs around the country and one of the resounding points from that was that they can’t even get their patients the antibiotics that they need,” Griffin said.

Additional antibiotics supplies have arrived in Queensland, but parents are still advised to call their pharmacy ahead of time.

There have been more than 1500 recorded cases of mycoplasma pneumoniae in Queensland since the beginning of the year.

“Mycoplasma is a huge challenge for us,” said Griffin, who has been fielding calls from intensive-care clinicians from around the state treating patients with severe cases on intubators.

“The number of different things going around at once is unusual.”

Dr Paul Griffin, infectious disease expert

The latest data from Queensland Health shows a 17 per cent rise in COVID-19 hospitalisations in the past fortnight: about 214 people with the virus were being treated in the state’s public hospitals.

At the same time, 43 people were in hospital with influenza, most of whom were aged 65 years or more. Of the 1400 people who have been hospitalised with the flu this year, 98 per cent were not vaccinated.

There has also been a significant rise in cases of RSV, which mostly affects young children and can lead to breathing problems in babies.

Across the state, 17,628 cases of RSV have been recorded so far this year – a 58 per cent increase compared with the same period last year.

Meanwhile, the number of recorded whooping cough infections in Queensland is 12 times as high as average.

For most of April, Queensland Health received more than 200 reports of the highly contagious respiratory infection, formally known as pertussis, every week.

That is roughly as many cases as it would normally record in the year to date.

There have also been more whooping cough infections reported in infants so far this year than were reported in all of 2023.

But more than 31,000 Queensland children are considered overdue for the whooping cough vaccine, and about half of those children are under the age of two.

Brisbane GP and former Queensland president of the Australian Medical Association, Maria Boulton, is concerned about vaccination rates.

“As a GP I’ve seen entire families come down with illness and there’s nothing worse than having to care for sick children when you’re sick yourself as well,” Boulton said.

“We know that Queensland Health is also concerned. They have been sharing a lot of data with all the medical stakeholders.

“Queensland does fall behind when it comes to vaccine rates. If there was a State of Origin with vaccine rates, Queensland wouldn’t normally win that.”

Only 20.3 per cent of Queenslanders have received their flu vaccine so far this year, and only 10.4 per cent of children under the age of five.

Griffin said people had also forgotten “all those basic things we did during COVID” to stop the spread of infection.

“I believe people have lost sight of how important it is to stay home when they are unwell,” he said.

“I believe people have lost sight of how important it is to stay home when they are unwell.”

Dr Paul Griffin

However, he also wonders if the mycoplasma pneumoniae bacterium has changed over time. “Maybe we’re seeing a nastier version of it going around,” he said.

A Queensland Health spokesman said the increase in mycoplasma cases followed outbreaks in the Northern Hemisphere.

“Normal patterns of respiratory infection have been disrupted since 2020. We encourage all Queenslanders to ensure their vaccinations are up to date given an increase in whooping cough and COVID-19 cases over the past fortnight,” he said.

Available vaccines

The influenza vaccine is free for all Queenslanders in 2024.  

RSV immunisation is free for all newborn babies born on, or after, 1 February 2024 (up to less than eight months of age). First Nations babies less than eight months of age and children with complex medical conditions under 20 months of age are also eligible.

The RSV vaccine is also approved for people over the age of 60 who can access it through their GP.

The COVID-19 vaccine is free and is recommended every 12 months for people aged 65 to 74, and every six months for all people aged 75 years and older.

The whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine is included in free childhood and adolescent immunisation schedules and is also available free for all pregnant people to protect themselves and their baby.