REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Thursday, July 4, 1985

A 36-YEAR-OLD Gold Coast man was among the first deaths reported from a virulent strain of influenza sweeping the state.

He was one of three people which post-mortems confirmed the presence of the Influenza B virus.

But Health Minister Brian Austin said it was only the “tip of the iceberg” with several strains understood to be raging through the community.

Several Gold Coast cases were among the 23 confirmed “isolations” of the virus reported to the State Health Department. The virus-related illness cut a swath through the Gold Coast workforce, with widespread reports of absenteeism from business and industry. In some cases staff numbers were reduced by up to 30 per cent.

A Gold Coast doctor said most surgeries were seeing a far higher number of patients with flu symptoms than usual.

Some people diagnosed with the virus were considered suitable for hospital admission – if there was room, he told the Bulletin.

Depending on the strain of the virus and the strength of the patient, full recovery could take anything from a few weeks to a couple of months.

Mr Austin said the number of confirmed cases indicated a serious outbreak.

“We tend only to see the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

“The cases reported to the Health Department are only an indication of the scale on which the outbreak is occurring and we can only compare the number of cases reported this year with those of past years.”

The Minister renewed his warning about the seriousness of the virus.