Up until now, the most influenza cases recorded in the month of May had been in 2019, when 30,372 people tested positive. The World Health Organisation’s Professor Ian Barr told a BioMelbourne Network forum last week that laboratory cases were “the tip of the iceberg”. “(There) could be close to ten times the amount of circulating case numbers so far 2022,” WHO’s collaborating centre for reference and research on influenza (CCRRI) deputy director said. “Influenza is definitely back in the Southern Hemisphere in 2022.“Australia is really at the forefront of the fight against flu, with a number of the viruses in this year’s vaccines being isolated at the WHO labs here in Melbourne.”He said early signs indicated this year’s vaccine was a good match for the dominant strain of flu — but warned uptake was too low with only 31 per cent of the population immune. “From the samples that are being sent to us at the WHO CCRRI, we’re seeing vaccine components that are well matched to the influenza A viruses (H1N1 and H3N2) that are circulating in Australia,” he said. “While it’s too early to assess vaccine effectiveness, this is a positive start.“We have had pretty low uptake recorded by the Australian Immunisation record (AIR) database.“The introduction of free vaccination will help boost this.”Seriqus executive Dr Jonathon Anderson told the forum we were among the “first countries to face Covid and a simultaneous flu season that is similar to pre-Covid levels”“Australia is a unique position,” he said. “It’s clear the rest of the world will be watching our flu season closely and learning from our successes or failures.”As of June 5 — the date of Victoria’s most recent Sentinel Practice Influenza Network report — the state had recorded 17,855 cases of influenza. 99.9 per cent of cases recorded have been type A. Victoria has recorded just 64 influenza cases by the same date in 2021, with this year’s figure’s representing a more than 278-fold increase. For the same period in 2019, Victoria had recorded 15, 213 for the year so far — 17 per cent less than 2022.
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