900 dead, 310,000 infected....

[Leongsam]

.... as a result of the 2019/2020 flu season in OZ.

Flu season which struck down 310,000 Australians 'worst on record' due to early outbreaks
ABC Sunshine Coast
/ By Tara Cassidy
Posted 11 FebFebruary 2020

2019 saw the highest number of flu cases on record in Australia and 2020 could be worse.(Pixabay)
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Researchers are warning little can be done to prevent future severe flu seasons, if a pattern of prolonged, year-round outbreaks continue.
Key points:

• More than 310,000 people presented to Australian health services with influenza in 2019, marking the country's worst flu season on record
• Researchers say that it was one of the most successful vaccination years to date but early outbreaks occurred before vaccines were given out
• With continued early outbreaks, 2020 could be similar

Last year, Australia experienced its worst flu season on record, with more than 310,000 people presenting to hospital and health services nationwide.
The figure is seven times greater than Australia's previous 18-year average.
'Happens once every 10 years'
World Health Organisation (WHO) influenza researcher, Ian Barr, said such aggressive seasons were generally a "one-in-every-10-year occurrence", but early flu outbreaks had seen Australia go through two in just three years.
He said it is an issue that is hard to predict and one difficult to address with vaccines.
"Definitely in terms of influenza seasons 2019 was the biggest Australia has had … it was very unusual," Dr Barr said.

Ian Barr says last year's high numbers were due to a prolonged season and early outbreaks.
"I think one of the big reasons it was a such a severe season was that in most states, it was very prolonged.
"In Queensland it was reasonably long, but then in Victoria, Tasmania and, to a lesser extent, New South Wales, it was a very prolonged season which started much earlier than we would normally expect to see such high intensity activity.
"It lasted right through 'til October."
According to Dr Barr, last year's peak occurred almost two months earlier than normal and researchers have found it difficult to determine the cause.
He believes international travellers played a significant role, but said other factors were also at play.
"The whole business of influenza is a numbers game, so if you get enough people coming back to Australia with infections from overseas, that can happen," Dr Barr said.

"We put it down to higher tourist numbers, more Australians travelling overseas, climate conditions.

"But we actually believe that a number of last year's cases originated from some of the large outbreaks in the Northern Territory, which led to small outbreaks in the southern states — Queensland included.
"It's most likely a combination of those factors … which is just plain unlucky."
Hospital beds full and staff sick
Queensland Health Minister, Stephen Miles, said the intense season put a major strain on hospital and health services nationwide, which would have to incorporate early outbreaks into future planning.
"Certainly the levels we saw, it took a very high toll on the community and the health system," he said.
"We had a record number of summer cases and that elongated the impact on our hospitals through more months of the year, as well as many of our own staff ended up catching the flu.

Health Minister Steven Miles said hospitals and staff found it difficult to cope with last years flu season, due to it beginning earlier than normal.(AAP: Dave Hunt)
"That itself has an impact on our ability to cover rosters and increase staffing when we really need to, it makes the job of running hospitals even harder."
According to Mr Miles, early preparation had aimed to deal with influxes in patients, but not for seasons which extend for nearly half the year.
"Every year we have a winter bed strategy that's designed to deal with that, but the peak last year we had to bring it forward substantially," he said.
"There's a lot of mysteries still about the flu and that's why we have a lot of people allocated to researching and working on it.

"Every year the virus is different and the way it impacts us is different, we do our best to predict it.

"It just demonstrates how serious a virus the flu is and how important it is to get vaccinated and stop it spreading even more."

But WHO's Dr Barr said he does not believe vaccinations would have much impact where early outbreaks of influenza are concerned, stating 2019 was one of their most successful vaccination years to date.

"I wouldn't say the vaccine had too much of an impact on that [severe season last year], the season was already in the starter gates and running before most vaccines were even given out," he said.

"Given the significant number of cases in March and April — the vaccine isn't even available during that time, and it normally takes a couple of weeks after being vaccinated to reach peak immunity.

"I wouldn't say this was a vaccine issue."

Longer lasting vaccines a long term solution

According to Dr Barr, vaccines are created based on strains circulating in the northern hemisphere, which meant it would be difficult to bring forward a release date in Australia.
He said current vaccines only last three to six months, so early immunisation would also mean they may not last through the peak months of July and August.

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"You could bring it forward slightly and make some vaccines available a bit earlier, but early to late March, that's really about the best you could do," he said.
"If we could have some early vaccines available, especially in certain states, it may help out slightly.
"But perhaps there's also some learning opportunities in terms of having longer lasting vaccines, we're always trying to be better.
"There's a lot of work and money being invested in trying to improve influenza vaccines, we're taking a number of different approaches, but these things take time."
While 2019 saw the highest number of influenza cases across the country, 2017 still holds the record for the highest number of flu-related deaths, with over 1,100 cases.

Last year there were over 900 influenza linked deaths in Australia.

Posted 11 FebFebruary 2020

 

[Leongsam]

abc.net.au

Doctors scramble to find out why this flu season may be the worst in decades


5-7 minutes


Carolina Williams is celebrating her 49th birthday and she has more than one reason to be happy.
Key points:

• Nearly 217,000 Australians have been diagnosed with influenza so far this year
• The national death toll officially stands at 430
• A record 12.5 million vaccines have been distributed so far this year

Three weeks ago, the Toowoomba businesswoman feared she might not live to celebrate the occasion after coming down with the flu.
"I had lots of aches and pains and a fever. In the end due to my breathing problems, I had to call the ambulance," Ms Williams said.
She was so sick doctors considered putting her in an induced coma.
"Initially it felt to me like a normal cold, the difference was, it escalated quite quickly," she said.
Ms Williams is one of the nearly 217,000 Australians diagnosed with influenza so far this year.
Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

Mum-of-three dies from flu in Queensland
The national death toll officially stands at 430, although the real figure could be much higher with experts saying some deaths are attributed to other causes despite flu-related complications.
In Queensland this year, at least 84 people have died.
Mother of three Jacinta Foulds died in hospital this month after being admitted when her flu symptoms worsened.
Her grieving husband pleaded with people to get vaccinated.
"I've got three kids without a mum because of a flu," he said.
"This stuff kills.
"If you're sick, go to the doctor."
It is one of the worst seasons in two decades, second only to the flu epidemic of 2017.
In some states the flu season appears to be over, but the number of people being diagnosed in the eastern states remains high.
The very young and the elderly are the most at risk.

The number and rate of influenza infections in Australia at August 17.(Supplied: Professor Ian Mackay, virologydownunder.com)
Margaret Power, 88, visited her local GP when she felt unwell.
"It wasn't real serious, but I thought I'd get on top of it early," she said.
But things quickly went from bad to worse with Ms Power spending the last few weeks recovering in hospital.
She had contracted the most common circulating strain, influenza A.

Margaret Power has spent weeks recovering from the flu.
Krispin Hajkowicz treated Ms Power after she arrived by ambulance at the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital.
"Margaret was very unwell when she came in and unfortunately developed a severe pneumonia and blood stream infection related to her flu."
The Director of the Hospital's Infectious Diseases Unit, Dr Hajkowicz said he's never seen a flu season like it.

Krispin Hajkowicz, director of the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital infectious diseases unit.(ABC News: Dea Clark)
"We've all been working very hard, the hospitals have been dealing with very large number of cases of influenza through the emergency department, the general wards and the intensive care units."
Normally, flu cases spike in the cooler months, between June and September.
This year, health authorities were caught by surprise when the season started much earlier than usual.
A report by the World Health Organisation Influenza Centre described the outbreak as "exceptional."
Report author Professor Ian Barr said the number of cases was about "five times what we'd normally see in that inter-seasonal period".
"2019 … may actually exceed the 2017 season," he said.
Now the race is on to find out why.

Kirsty Short and Jianyun Lu are working to understand why the season has been so bad.(ABC News: Dea Clark)
Jianyun Lu, has travelled from China to study the unusual flu season under the tutelage of the University of Queensland's, Kirsty Short.
They have discovered a slight association with climatic factors, but not enough to account for the large spike.
"We can't explain 100 per cent why, when it's over 25 degrees Celsius, why we have a very sharp increase," Dr Lu said.
So they have turned their attention to the virus itself.
There was an unusual number of children hospitalised with flu over summer and it's the strains isolated from those patients that the researchers have under the microscope.
Dr Short said they are investigating whether certain mutations were enabling the virus to "survive longer in the environment", or allowing it to "transmit better".
"By the end of the year, I think we'll have a good understanding of potential factors that could have contributed to our unusual summer flu," Dr Short said.
Professor Barr identified a large outbreak in the Northern Territory at the end of last year, and a mild-2018 influenza season as contributing factors and said there needed to be year-round surveillance.

Carolina Williams had received a flu vaccination.(ABC News: Dea Clark)
"In Australia we rely on a number of different reporting mechanisms, so we can track influenza seasons. Some of these are run all year round, but a number of them, such as the surveillance in hospitals, only run from April to November," he said.
"We need to be better prepared. Maybe we can tweak the vaccination timings if we see these early outbreaks."
A record 12.5 million vaccines have been distributed so far this year.
Vaccination didn't help Carolina Williams and Margaret Power but Dr Hajkowicz said it was still "the best way to protect yourself and those who might not be able to have the strongest immune response to their own vaccination."

 

[Leongsam]

abc.net.au

'If you're sick, go to the doctor': Flu kills 35-year-old woman days after diagnosis


3-4 minutes


A Queensland mother of three has died from the flu, with her husband sharing his grief just hours after her death to warn others about how quickly the virus can take hold.
Key points:

• Toowoomba mother Jacinta Foulds had been feeling out of breath and tired for days but took a turn for the worse on Tuesday
• Husband Daniel Foulds says he is struggling to hold it together for their three children, aged between 11 and seven
• The football club where Mr Foulds coached is rallying behind the grieving family

Jacinta Foulds, 35, had flu symptoms for more than a week and was diagnosed with influenza A on Friday. She died on Wednesday morning in Toowoomba hospital.
There have been 37,000 cases of the flu reported in Queensland this year, with Ms Foulds the 84th person to die.
She had been feeling out of breath and tired for days but took a turn for the worse on Tuesday morning and decided to call husband Daniel Foulds at work.
"She just sounded off," the self-employed Toowoomba carpenter said.
"So I jumped into the ute and headed straight home, I walked in the door and took one look at her and knew.

Ms Foulds was diagnosed with influenza A on Friday.(Facebook)
"She had just took a massive turn, boom.
"I had to ring an ambulance.
"She was in and out, and they took an hour to stabilise her."
Mr Foulds said his wife was swarmed by doctors when they arrived at the Toowoomba hospital.
He was told she could die.
They put her in an induced coma and gave her a 50:50 chance of survival.
"I couldn't comprehend it," he said.
Ms Foulds, a nail technician, had developed septicaemia and her heart had to be restarted three times.
"She was fighting the flu so hard, the bug got in and it destroyed her," Mr Foulds said.
"We got to say our last words together.

The couple have three children together, aged between 7 and 11.(Facebook)
"She apologised. I said 'don't be sorry'.
"After that, they put her out and she crashed.
"I still can't believe she's gone."
'If you're sick, go to the doctor'
Mr Foulds described his wife as one of the toughest people he knew, a woman who was up and walking just six hours after each of her three caesarean deliveries.
He said he was struggling to hold it together for his children, aged between 11 and seven.
While it was taxing to do interviews so soon after her death, he wanted to encourage others to seek treatment and get the flu shot.
No-one in their family had the injection but Mr Foulds said they would each year from now on.
"This stuff kills — I've lost my soulmate and the mother of [my] children.
"If you're sick, go to the doctor."
Mr Foulds coached junior football at the Toowoomba Valleys Junior Rugby League club and his wife was also well known there.
Club president Michael Watts said the community was devastated by Ms Foulds's death and would rally behind the grieving family.
"It was definitely a big shock, especially in this day and age with modern medicine — you just don't think of these things," Mr Watts said.
"Everyone's put their hand up to make meals and help out wherever we can.
"I remember Jacinta as a fun-loving, well-hearted mother of three — she was always outgoing and outspoken — a real pleasure to be around."

 

[Leongsam]

To put things in perspective the death toll from Covid-19 is only 104.

The number of cases is 8,362.

 

[syed putra]

I thought panadol will more or less reduce the severity of flu attacks,