Cheap flu jab not up to task

AUSTRALIA suffered the worst flu season on record because we used a cheap vaccine that did not protect the elderly, doctors have warned.

As the virus finally recedes it can be revealed more than 217,000 Australians had laboratory confirmed cases of the flu this year – more than twice the previous record of just over 100,000 in 2015.

Doctors are blaming the $6 budget version of the flu vaccine used in the national flu vaccination program for the problem.

It is used even though it does not work well in the elderly, said Immunisation Coalition chair Professor Paul Van Buynder.

A vaccine that is four times stronger and costs $8 per dose has been found to be 24 per cent more effective in preventing influenza and cuts the risk of hospitalisation for respiratory illness by 12.7 per cent. It is not available in Australia.

“Paying for a vaccine that doesn’t work is a false economy, if you can stop tens of thousands of people getting sick or hospitalisation the extra expense is worth undertaking,” Prof van Buynder said.

“This was a disaster year and if we don’t get policy change as a result heaven help me.”

The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Dr Bastian Seidel is also calling on the government to fund the stronger vaccine.

He wants the government to provide free flu vaccines for everybody.

Prof van Buynder is a public health physician with the Gold Coast Health Service and has worked in the UK and Canada

and been a member of an advisory panel to the expert group that advises governments of which vaccines should be on the national immunisation schedule.

The Immunisation Coalition, formerly the Influenza Specialist Group, has been in existence since 2006 and has a board of nine doctors committed to raising public awareness of immunisation.

THIS WAS A DISASTER YEAR AND IF WE DON’T GET POLICY CHANGE AS A RESULT HEAVEN HELP ME

This year’s flu virus took the lives of Canberra mother-oftwo Jennifer Thew and eightyear-old Rosie Andersen, eight nursing home residents in Victoria and six in Tasmania also died.

Sarah Hawthorn was put in an induced coma after contracting the flu and had to give birth to her son early.

In Queensland, 5710 people were hospitalised with the flu and 678 were admitted to intensive care.