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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/apr/18/flu-cases-are-on-the-rise-across-australia-do-i-need-a-winter-vaccination>
"Experts are urging Australians to be proactive about getting winter
vaccinations amid warnings that flu infections are already on the rise.
“We’ve started to see flu numbers creep up,” said Dr Daryl Cheng, medical lead
at the Melbourne Vaccine Education Centre. “With the return of travel we’re
starting to see seasonal patterns mimic what we were more used to pre-Covid,”
he said.
Cheng said last year’s flu season started early, with cases peaking by June,
two months earlier than was usual before the Covid pandemic.
The Doherty Institute’s Prof Ian Barr said flu infections during the latest
northern hemisphere winter had also peaked two months earlier than usual, in
December.
“In Europe they’re seeing an extended season … with quite a bit of influenza B
still circulating,” he said.
Barr, who is deputy director of the World Health Organization’s collaborating
centre for reference and research on influenza, said flu infections in
Australia doubled in March compared with February, but “it looks like it’s
going to be a normal season”.
The latest figures from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System
show there were 3,730 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases in the fortnight to
19 March, up 38% from the previous two weeks. In the year so far, 13,292 cases
have been recorded.
Here’s what you need to know to prepare."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
