Deaths spark flu alert
Experts urge jabs for kids as Aussie toll mounts
A KILLER flu season has triggered warnings for parents to urgently vaccinate their children as the death toll from a rampant out-of-season influenza epidemic mounts.
The World Health Organisation has warned the number of flu cases in Australia is the highest in 20 years.
Latest figures show there have been more than 51,000 flu cases reported so far this year while at least 85 people have died from the disease and a further 202 taken to hospital.
Experts warn the escalating death toll has occurred months before the official flu season is due to start next week.
Griffith University flu expert Professor Paul Van Buynder warned that children were influenza super spreaders.
He said they can often pass it on to their parents, and grandparents.
He urged parents to vaccinate their children to help them halt the virus.
At least three children in Victoria have died from the flu this week, highlighting that it is not just the frail elderly who are at risk.
“We are keen to get children vaccinated because we know ten times more children die from influenza than die from all the other vaccine preventable disease put together,” Prof Van Buynder said.
He said parents worried about vaccinating their children — as a result of a scare in 2010 when a flu vaccine for children caused febrile seizures — should be reassured that vaccine was no longer used.
“That vaccine doesn’t exist anywhere in the world,” he said.
He said the new vaccines were safe. For only the second time, all states are providing free flu vaccines for children aged six months to five-yearsold through GP clinics.
It costs parents just $15 to vaccinate children aged over 5.
Pregnant women, people aged over 65, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and those with a chronic condition are also eligible for a free flu shot.
Now is the optimum time to get your vaccination because it takes up to two weeks for the body to develop immunity to the flu after the shot, Professor Van Buynder said.